Merge Animo
by rbobstar
Summary: Harry and Ginny decide to go for it. The worst that could happen is they would end up living in a paradoxical loop. The best is that they would save everyone. Even Ron. Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione. Time-Travel AU after CC
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

November 24, 2025

"I know that Ron is actually laughing at me right now. He knows how much I hate public speaking. However, this is Ronald Bilius Weasley I'm talking about. Of course I'm going to say something.

We knew Ron by many names; 'That ginger one who's always with Potter', 'That ginger married to Minister of Magic', 'That bloke who owns Three Double Yew with his brother George', 'One of the Hogwarts trio' and many others.

I knew Ron as my best friend and my brother. He was brave, not because he was a Gryffindor, or a former Auror, or formed the DA, but because he stood by me when things were tough. He was kind, joyful, moody, and loving. He always knew how to make Hermione angry, which was brilliant cause it stopped her being angry at me and then she became angry at the both of us."

Harry sighed. He looked up from his notes. The sun had decided that because it was Ron's funeral, to make an appearance, which was very strange for a Scottish winter. Rather than blame global warming, he liked to think that the sun was saying thank you to Ron. The wizarding world were definitely saying thank you to him.

The age of 45 was considered a very young death for a wizard. What was more surprising was that it was from a typically Muggle disease: stage three Lung Cancer. After two weeks of persistent coughing that worsened so badly he couldn't finish a conversation properly without falling into fits of coughing, he woke up one morning coughing blood.

By the time Hermione managed to drag him to St. Mungos, the Healers were not able to do anything. Ron spent his last few days with his family in a private wing of the hospital. He died while listening to the radio, approximately 10 minutes after Chudley scored their first win in three years. The president of the club would rename the South Stand of their stadium the 'Ronald Weasley Stand' in honour of their biggest fan.

Hermione and Percy were drafting a bill to ensure that when all wizards and witches do health checks in the future, they would be checked for both Wizarding and Muggle ailments. Harry was sure they'd be able to get it passed within a matter of months.

Harry had been to quite a few funerals in his life. However, nothing prepared him for Ron's. Next to the emotional fact that his best friend died so young, he knew, but was mentally unprepared, for how many people would be there. The whole Chudley Cannons team and management were there, along with Dumbledore's Army, the remaining members of the Order of the Phoenix, most of the students of Hogwarts as well as a couple of hundred different associates and friends from Ron's life. There was also the usual gaggle of redheads, mixed with a few black and curly brown hairs thrown into the mix. However, the Weasleys were unusually quiet and solemn. Harry's wife, Ginny, and Mother-in-law, Molly were sitting each side of Hermione, who was silently crying.

It was with a heavy heart that Harry decided to continue.

"Ronald would have hated this as well. Hundreds of people being sad over him. He would have absolutely hated it that the Cannon players are wearing black, because that would be a Magpies colour".

There was a smattering of sad laughter.

"I miss you mate. Have fun on your next adventure. We'll join you someday."

Harry gave the signal and the coffin was lowered. The Flourish and Blotts radio hour choir started singing a hymn. As Ron's headstone was placed magically on the mound, the choir stopped.

They then started to hum a familiar tune. As their humming grew louder Harry recognised it as the William Tell Overture. Dudley's daughter was a fantastic singer and would hum along to it whenever she and James would play when they were little. He found it strange though, that a wizarding choir would hum a Muggle song.

As the choir reached a crescendo, explosions were heard around the grounds. Instinctively, Harry, along with the dozen or so Auror's stationed around the grounds, took out their wands. He breathed a sigh of relief, however, when he saw what was happening.

George, true to form, had decided to give Ron a proper sendoff. The firework show lasted for 10 minutes. They were beautiful. Scenes of Harry and Ron running from Aragog, Ron destroying the locket, his wedding day with Hermione were some of the highlights magically shown in the background of the fireworks. _That's why George wanted those memories in the Pensieve_ , Harry realised.

Harry saw Ginny half-heartedly glare at George. She was holding in a smile. It was funny how to him how torn she looked between being a mother and being a sister.

Christmas Day, 2025

There was something reassuring that even though her youngest son died just a month before, Molly was still able to cook up an amazing Christmas Day dinner. The mood was slightly quieter than most Weasley Christmas celebrations. However, this was a Weasley Christmas celebration. That still meant utter chaos.

"It's very much not like a Malfoy Christmas dinner at all", Scorpius mused. Fred Jr. had just turned Rose Granger-Weasley Pink and was currently being chased around by miniature dragons. Rose certainly inherited her mothers' skills at Transfiguration.

"Indeed it isn't. Draco's not much on Christmas cheer is he?" Harry asked, taking another sip of Butterbeer.

"He was a bit when mom was alive, but not so much after."

"Well hopefully Gabrielle can bring some life into him. Any word on their travels?" Harry asked.

"He sent me an owl with some pictures. Looks like they're having the time of their lives". Scorpius replied.

"You know, technically if you married Albus and your father married Gabrielle, your step-mother would also be your aunt-in-law", Harry teased. Scorpius reddened and mumbled something along the line of 'ugh'.

It was announced last Christmas that Draco was dating Fleur's sister, by appearing at last year's Weasley Chistmas bash. There was, for a lack of a better term, a mixed reaction. The positive reactions was unexpectedly, Molly Weasley hugging Draco and welcoming him to the Weasleys, much to Harry's amusement. He also remembered how Ron wanted to force feed him Veritaserum.

Harry felt a pang thinking about Ron. He looked at the corner of the tent where a "Ron Weasley Corner" was erected. Hermione was there talking to Luna and Rolf. Behind her were blown up moving pictures of Ron. Ron and Ginny as babies in a bathtub, Ron and Hermione's wedding day and Ron and George opening their second branch of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes (now known as Three Double Yew) were some of the larger pictures hung up. Throughout the night various Weasleys and guests added pictures of their own.

"I think we all miss him", Scorpius piped up. He had seen Harry staring at the corner. Three years of dating Albus, as well as a summer working at 3W, meant that Scorpius and Ron became quite good friends. He was quite touched when Arthur Weasley asked him to be one of the ushers at the funeral.

"That we certainly do", Harry replied.

"How's Hermione taking it?", Scorpius asked.

"She's working harder than usual, which for Hermione is saying something. It seems she's been spending a lot of time at the UK Department of Health discussing ways of trying to introduce the Muggle equivalent of cancer checks to the wizarding world. It's a bit of an uphill battle as wizards think they're invincible to such things", Harry shook his head.

"Really?", Scorpius asked, surprised. "I thought that was a done deal?".

"What do you mean?", Harry asked.

"Well she's visiting Level Nine a lot. I've must have shared a lot of elevators with her on my way to MMR", Scorpius replied. He was working under Arthur Weasley as a member of the Ministry of Muggle Relations. Lucius Malfoy surely must have rolled in his grave.

"The Unspeakables".

Even though Harry was the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, he very rarely had any dealings with The Unspeakables. The Unspeakables were so secretive that even the Minister of Magic had no idea what they were doing. Thus hearing that the Minister herself was visiting them on such a regular basis so soon after her husband's death worried him.

Harry shrugged, "It's probably just Minister stuff". He didn't think he convinced Scorpius. He wasn't convinced himself.

* * *

"The house is empty. James, Albus and Scorpius are here. Lily is playing Quidditch with the brood of monsters we call our nieces and nephews. Come on Harry! Just a quickie!", Ginny pleaded. She looked at Harry straight in the eye. His spine tingled with anticipation.

"Harry, Ginny, can I talk to you?", Hermione popped up out of nowhere. He held in a strangled sigh and turned to look at his oldest friend. She looked pale and thin, but her eyes seemed steely and determined. The word SPEW came into his mind. He shivered again, but for a different reason.

"Sure Hermione? What do you need?" Ginny asked.

"Not here. Let's go upstairs", she moved without waiting for a reply. Harry and Ginny followed her.

They traversed up the Burrow to Ron's old room. Harry prepared his eyes for the blinding orange that would attack his eyes. True to form it was still brilliantly Chudley Cannons all throughout the room. Ironically, it felt sad.

Hermione sat down and looked straight at Harry and Ginny.

"I know how to save Ron".

August 20th, 1991

"This is madness" the greasy haired man said.

"Yes, we know" replied the red-haired woman.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" The old man asked, nervously.

"He's actually nervous! Can you believe that Gin?" The black haired man said.

"His portrait did not say anything about this!" Ginny giggled.

"Don't worry you two. The worst that could happen is that it wouldn't work and we'd live in this paradox for eternity. At least Voldemort would be dead." Harry assured them.

Dumbledore and Snape exchanged a look and brought up their wands.

"I love you Gin".

"Love you too".

"Avada Kedavra".

"Avada Kedavra".

And Harry and Ginny Potter were no more.

* * *

Author's notes: Time travelling paradoxes give me a headache. Chapter 2 when I can be bothered. I will not abandon this story without telling you lot. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to eat pie.


	2. Goodbye

**Chapter 1 - Goodbye**

Christmas Day, 2025

"I know how to save Ron", Hermione said.

Harry and Ginny stared at her. They knew something was coming. They had talked to Ron on his deathbed and promised him that they would help Hermione get through the grief of losing him. They were ready for anger, sadness, resentment and anything else Hermione might have been suffering from.

They did not, however, expect bargaining to come in so early.

"What do you mean save him? Ron died of a disease", Ginny said.

"Exactly", Hermione replied.

"So what is there to save? It's not like he got hexed or cursed or poisoned-" Hermione cut Harry off.

"Harry how much do you know about cancer?" Hermione asked.

"Quite a bit. Muggle scientists themselves are not really sure how cancer develops. Any living animal or human can have it." Harry replied.

"Exactly. However it's usually exacerbated by harmful chemicals. Muggles smoke more than wizards do and that's why the threat of cancer is so high in their society. Even non-smokers can get second-hand smoke and lead up to cancer," Hermione explained. "However, Ron was never around smokers. None of the Weasley's are smokers. Dung Fletcher is the only wizard I know who smokes and Ron and I have seen him once the past 10 years or so, at his hearing."

"Okay. What's your point Hermione?" Ginny asked, not unkindly.

"As you know I've spent a lot of time with the Muggle Department of Health and I got to know the disease pretty well. The wizarding world is largely unaffected by whatever that can cause it and unless a family lives like the Gaunts, the chances of someone from an Oldblood family getting it is very unlikely. A Newblood or half-blood might get it through hereditary but the chances are very low. It has to be a prolonged exposure to something very harmful that has a lot of radiation in it. Could even be a Dark Magical object..." Hermione trailed off

"Son of a bitch!" Ginny was the first one to catch on. Hermione gave her a sad smile.

"The locket!" Harry finally caught on.

"10 point to Gryffindor Mr. and Mrs. Potter," Hermione said.

"But that was decades ago Hermione! How could it only affect Ron now?" Harry asked.

"I'm not sure. You and I usually took shifts when we wore it. We'd take it off from time to time when it got too cumbersome and depressing. He just kept on wearing it. However because there was a lack of exposure to other forms of hazardous material and because he only wore it for 3 weeks, it probably took forever for the tumors to develop. Plus we never really checked for Muggle diseases", she added bitterly.

The three of them kept quiet. They could hear the sound of the Weasley Christmas Bash still happening. However, to them, that world seemed far away.

"Hermione," Harry started. "We shared it between us for three whole months. Does that mean we might have it?"

"I don't really know. I think we should get checked as soon as possible", Hermione replied. "Now back to the topic at hand. What I suggest is-"

"The diary." Ginny interrupted.

Harry looked at her. This woman he loved, brave and selfless and brought up their three children to become heinous evil cretins, looked very afraid. He reached out for her hand and held it. Her grip was vice-like.

"I've thought of that. We don't know. I could be wrong and what happened to Ron could have been a freakishly natural coincidence," Hermione said. Her voice started quickening and Harry saw the signs of a Hermione starting to rant in anger. He decided to not let her.

"I don't think it's a coincidence. Look at our lives. We try our best to make sure our kids don't get into the same spot of rubbish we did, but somehow my son gets into a spot of time-travel-" He stopped when Hermione did something very unexpected.

She laughed.

Not the normal Hermione laugh. A hysterical one. The one she did when Harry was panicking over asking Ginny to marry him. The one she did when Ron's own proposal attempt became a total disaster that lead to Hagrid not speaking to anybody associated with a Weasley for 2 whole months.

It took several minutes before Hermione finally calmed down. Ginny threatening to hex her helped.

"I'm sorry. Now. About time-travel…"

January 11, 2025

"YOU'RE DOING WHAT?!" Albus shouted.

Scorpius Malfoy was always very grateful that Harry and Ginny welcomed him with open arms. After the Delphi incident, Harry had apologised to Scorpius personally and even though he didn't say it, the way the Potters, Weasleys and anyone associated with them treated him made him feel very much like he belonged with them. When it came out that he and Albus were dating, they didn't even bat an eye. Apparently being in love with each other was only news to the two of them.

However, at this very moment, he wished he was a Muggle. He could be watching one of those telly things with the moving pictures and sound. Maybe learn an instrument. He was good with numbers and Rose said the Weasley's had a cool uncle who was an accountant so maybe he would have been a Muggle accountant with a computerer.

Because what Harry and Ginny were saying was bat-shit crazy.

January 15, 2026

"Even if, theoretically, this was possible, why would you want to go through that whole rubbish all over again?", Snape's portrait asked with a sneer.

Harry, Ginny, Hermione were in the Room of Requirement with the portraits of Albus Dumbledore and Severus Snape. They had just explained their plan to the two former headmasters.

"Because it wasn't supposed to end like this!" Harry half-shouted to Snape.

"Like what Potter? You have a high ranking position in the Ministry, more popular than ever before and you have three children who are somehow responsible adults. One of them even made a Malfoy acceptable."

"I think it's a good idea" Dumbledore suddenly said.

"What?!" Snape replied incredulously. "Albus they're talking about changing time. Changing the course of human history. Even if they somehow found the fixed points of time that have to remain unchanged and left it at that-"

"Which we have and it's only one event" Hermione interrupted him.

"Who's to say they'll come out victorious? Worst case scenario they could break the space-time continuum and we'd all never exist!" Snape finished, ignoring Hermione.

"Because so many did not deserve to die, Severus. I know now that what I had planned worked, but many were lost. And now we've lost Ronald, and we're losing the three of them within five years. It's best that the Horcruxes are never kept in possession for too long." Dumbledore explained.

Snape sighed. "This mean Potter has to die again".

"At least twice", Harry replied, a bit too cheerfully for Ginny's liking.

April 2, 2026

"I now pronounce you, husband and wife. You may kiss the bride". Hermione announced with a smile.

The town hall erupted into cheers as Teddy kissed Victoire. Harry then gave the signal and 30 doves flew in, showering the hall with streamers that magically appeared behind them.

"I guess that's it. Ready?" Harry asked Ginny.

"I wish Scorpius or Albus would propose, but I guess you can't have everything." Ginny sighed, rubbing a tear out of her eye.

"We could put one of them in an Imperius and get him to propose. I'm not an Auror anymore and it is our last four months in this timeline." Harry joked.

"You know we're standing right behind you?" Albus asked.

"Oh my. I'm sorry. I didn't see you there!" Ginny said dramatically.

"Tell you what," Scorpius started. "If this whole time-travel business somehow ends up with Albus and I dating again, show us a Pensieve of this memory and I'll adopt and name our first child Severus Sirius Malfoy-Potter."

"Great" Ginny muttered. "Our grandchild will either be a superstar or a dark lord with a name like that.

August 9, 2026

Hermione stared at her two best friends. They were deep in conversation with Fred Jr. First time nerves were common among expecting parents, and Harry and Ginny wanted to make sure they could impart knowledge to Fred while also ensuring that he ignored about forty percent of the advice George gave him. She felt a pang of sadness that she might not be able to ever meet her grand-niece or nephew, because if Harry and Ginny did it right, this timeline would never exist.

They were at Potter Place. Ginny's birthday was two days away and Harry decided to have an early birthday party for her, with the excuse that the 11th fell on a Monday and he didn't want to disturb people's sleeping patterns. He of course omitted to include the fact that he and Ginny would be away and the timeline might not exist by then.

So by Hermione's reckoning, everybody was there. From the youngest Weasley to the oldest. From Professor McGonagall to the portraits of Professor Dumbledore and Snape (Harry rarely used his name to get something, but he made sure when he did that it was worth it). From Luna Scamander to Draco Malfoy. Even Zacharias Smith, the coward of the DA, was invited. Smith was of course the target of George and Fred Jr tonight.

The only person missing was Ron. And Fred. And Lupin, Tonks, Mad-Eye. Hermione counted the amount of people Harry and Ginny could save. Would save.

She decided to stop staring and join the party. What's the use of having 26 hours left to exist without enjoying yourself?

August 10, 2026

"Remember. Snape and Dumbledore. Everyone else that's necessary later on".

"Yes Hermione." They chimed half-heartedly

"Get Ron to ask me to the Yule Ball immediately. Make sure he isn't as thick as he was".

"Yes Hermione." They chimed again.

"No sex till Ginny is thirteen and only if Molly and Arthur know."

"AUNT HERMIONE STOP THAT'S GROSS" Lily shouted.

"Hermione we've been through the plan a million times. Every single step of it. We love you, but calm your tits please." Ginny said.

This was met by a crushing hug from her best friend. She was laughing and crying at the same time.

After Hermione had calmed down, Harry and Ginny went to hug their children, Scorpius and Hermione's children, whispering loving farewells. They walked back to the middle of the room and took out the True Time Turner.

"Thank you Draco". Harry said. Malfoy nodded. It was strange that his once enemy was now technically family.

"We love you all".

The Shrieking Shack was blinded in white light. When it was gone, Harry and Ginny Potter was no more.

Neither were Hermione Granger-Weasley, Draco Malfoy, James Potter, Albus Potter, Lily Potter, Scorpius Malfoy, Hugo Granger-Weasley and Rose Granger-Weasley.

As far as time was concerned, they didn't exist anymore.

August 10, 1991

A black-haired man and a red-headed woman approached the counter of the Three Broomsticks.

"A room for two please." Said the black-haired man

"Coming right up. May I have your names?" asked Madam Rosmerta

"Gregory and Hillary Proteus" said the red-haired woman.

"Are you in Hogsmaede for business or pleasure?"

The couple smiled.

"Both"

* * *

A/N: I never enjoy writing the set-up to time travel. It's like flying somewhere. I enjoy the flight itself and getting to my destination, but I despise the airport.

The Proteuses are a homage to Ruskbyte, a legendary writer who has sadly abandoned his writing.

As you have noticed I'm not the best at describing locations. I mainly write theatre plays and I rarely have to describe the locations in too much detail as my directors usually take over at that point. The reason I started writing this was to brush up on my detailing, and hopefully chapter by chapter a story emerges that's full of imagery.

There will be a lot of flash forwards which are kinds flashbacks as they're both the future and the past for Harry and Ginny. (Ugh why did I choose time-travel again?)

I'm taking the theory that time travel would not lead to a multiverse, and that any derivation in a timeline would change the future and not branch off into any other timelines. Maybe I'll write a multiverse story if I get better at this.


	3. The Meeting

**Chapter 2 - The Meeting**

August 11, 1991

"Happy Birthday love", Harry whispered while softly kissing Ginny's neck.

"It's too early", Ginny replied sleepily, although Harry felt by the way she was moving she was starting to wake up.

"You do know that we have less than 10 days to do this? After that it's at least three years of hormonal celibacy", Harry whispered while nibbling her ear.

Ginny sighed and turned around.

* * *

After they were done, they showered and prepared themselves for what lay ahead. Ginny used make-make up to cover Harry's scar, as there would be something amiss if the famous lightning bolt appeared on the head of a 45-year old.

After getting dressed they went down for breakfast. Ginny noticed that Harry was quiet and playing with his food.

"The last time you played with your food like that was before your last Hogwarts Quidditch match. What's wrong dear?" Ginny asked, sipping her coffee.

"The last time I saw the both of them alive, they died moments later", Harry said, quietly.

"I understand. But we've had a thousand conversations with them since," Ginny replied.

"I know that, but those were just their portraits. This is flesh and blood," Harry replied. "I don't know if I'm ready."

"Oh stop it. We've been preparing for this for 6 months. Hermione was less prepared for her N.E.W.T.S." Ginny said confidently. "Plus, we don't really have a back up plan do we? We destroyed the Time Turner last night and unless the Unspeakables had found new ways to travel forwards in time in 1991, we're stuck here. Let's get to doing what we came here to do."

Harry looked at her rather intently. He was reminded why he fell in love with her.

"We have fifteen minutes to spare. Let's go back upstairs".

* * *

Harry and Ginny walked up toward the Hogwarts gates. A short while later a giant of a man came into view, walking towards the gates. Harry felt his heart beating faster than he thought was humanly possible. Hagrid was his first ever friend in the wizarding world.

"Here comes the first one." Ginny whispered.

"Alright you two. How can I help you?" Hagrid asked.

"Hello there Hagrd. I'm Gregory Proteus and this is my wife Hillary. We're here to meet Professor Dumbledore." Harry replied.

"Right. The headmaster never told me bout no meeting." Hagrid said.

"Oh we don't have an appointment. This is rather impromptu." Ginny replied.

"Oh. Well I'm sorry but I'm not gonna let two strangers come into Hogwarts unannounced." Hagrid replied, looking at them with narrowed eyes.

"Tell him it's about the Philosophers Stone and that we know who tried to steal it." Harry replied, not missing a beat. Future-Hermione had prepared him for this.

Hagrid spluttered for a second before turning around and walked up to the castle. He returned a few minutes later and opened the gates.

"Professor Dumbledore is waiting for you in his office. Do you know where it is?" Hagrid asked walking along with them?

"Yes we do," Harry replied.

"Really? Because I've seen every student who's come to Hogwarts the past 50 years or so and I don't remember no Proteuses," Hagrid replied in a rather suspicious tone.

"Don't worry Hagrid. A lot of people don't have memories of us," Ginny replied.

Harry gave her a look that plainly said _You're enjoying this, a bit too much._

She gave him a Fred and George Weasley smile.

"Chocolate Cauldron" Hagrid said. The Gargoyle moved to reveal the stairs up to Dumbledore's office. Harry walked up, steeling himself mentally for what he was about to see. He pushed the door open.

Albus Dumbledore was sitting on his chair, alive and resplendent as ever. Dressed in his favourite purple robes, he was staring at the Potters (or Proteus' as far as he knew) with a twinkle in his eye. Harry checked his Occlumency shields and was sure that Ginny was doing the same.

"Mr. and Mrs. Proteus. Please, have a seat. Thank you Hagrid," he said to the half-giant, kindly.

"Ta Professor," Hagrid replied. He gave a shrewd look to the couple and left the office.

"Now I understand that you have some information regarding the attempt to steal the Philosophers Stone last week?" Dumbledore asked.

"Yes we do sir." Harry replied.

"Now before we get to that, I am curious. How did you know that the Philosopher's Stone was the targeted item? There are only a handful of people that are aware of its existence." Dumbledore asked.

"Before we answer that Professor, could you please get Professor Snape to join us?" Harry asked.

Dumbledore blinked.

"Severus? What does he have to do with this?" he enquired.

"It'll be easier to explain the one time. It's a rather long and farfetched story and we'd rather not repeat it too often." Ginny explained.

Dumbledore's twinkle was back. Harry double-checked his shields.

"Very, well". Dumbledore said. He stood up and moved towards a fireplace. Taking a scoop of Floo Powder out of a vase on top of his fireplace mantle, he threw it in, sprouting large green flames. "Severus. Could you come to my office please?" he called into the fireplace.

A few seconds later, the Hogwarts Potions Master came out of the fireplace, his usual cold impassive eyes staring at the Proteus'. He turned to Dumbledore. "You called Albus?"

"Yes. This is Gregory and Hilary Proteus." He gestured towards Harry and Ginny. "They have information regarding the Philosopher's Stone and they requested that you come here."

"Actually, we lied" Harry said immediately.

"Not about the Stone. We know who tried to steal it." Ginny said immediately.

"But our names are not Gregory and Hilary Proteus." Harry started.

"My name is Ginny Potter, although currently I'm known as Ginny Weasley, the daughter of Arthur and Molly Weasley." She smiled.

"And I," Harry started, taking out a make-up wipe and removing the make-up from his scar, "am Harry Potter."

Silence met their announcement.

"Is this some sort of joke?" Snape asked incredously after about a few minutes of silemce.

"Nope." Harry and Ginny both replied

"Harry Potter is eleven years old and Arthur and Molly's only daughter is only ten", Dumbledore said.

"Yes they are", Harry and Ginny chorused again.

"Please don't waste our time and leave", Snape said dismissively.

"You have always blamed yourself for Ariana", Harry said quickly, looking at Dumbledore.

"And your Patronus is still a doe because you still love Lily Potter", Ginny continued quickly, looking at Snape.

The last time Dumbledore looked this shocked was when Harry announced that he was successful in obtaining the memory of Slughorn divulging information of Horcruxes to Tom Riddle. Snape, being Snape, had a different reaction.

"Explain!" he said, furiously, his wand pointing at the couple.

"We're from the year 2026", Ginny started.

"Impossible" Snape spat out furiously.

"Damn it Snape I owe your portrait 5 Galleons." Harry said with a small chuckle.

"My portrait?" Snape asked. Apparently this wasn't the reply he expected.

"Yes. Your portrait that usually hangs in the Headmasters Office at Hogwarts" Harry replied matter-of-factly.

"Harry you're mucking it up. Let's do the Hermione explanation". Ginny said.

Harry gave her a look. Typical of her to spoil his fun. "Fine. You have the script. Read it out".

Ginny took out a piece of parchment from her robes and started reading out loud. "We are Harry and Ginny Potter from the year 2026. About 5 months before the writing of this letter Ginny Potter's brother, Ronald Weasley, died from lung cancer which came as a delayed effect from an overexposure to one of Voldemort's Horcruxes. We have decided to travel back to the year 1991 to change the past, ensuring that nobody would ever be affected by those foul things, and ending the Second Great Wizarding War before it even began."

Harry took the parchment from her hand and contiued. "We do this in the hope of saving the lives of Cedric Diggory, Sirius Black, Amelia Bones, Emmeline Vance, Florean Fortescue, Albus Dumbledore, Charity Burbage, Alastor Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour, Bathilda Bagshot, Ted Tonks, Dobby the House Elf, Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Colin Creevey, Severus Snape and hundreds of other innocent witches, wizards, Squibs and Muggles who did not deserve the fates they received."

Ginny took the parchment back. "We are aware that this may be a bit too much to handle. In this bottle is a selection of memories that you can view in a Pensieve. Before you decide if you can trust us, we only ask that you view all the memories in the Pensieve and then decide on your next course of action." She took out a bottle from her robes and placed it on Dumbledore's desk.

The silence in the room was deafening. The only thing that was heard were the various noises being made by Dumbledore's various instruments.

After what felt like an eternity, without saying a word, Dumbledore took out the Elder Wand and pointed towards one of the shelves. His Pensieve flew out towards the middle of the room. With another flick, the bottle of memories flew up and emptied itself into the Pensieve. Without a word, Dumbledore and Snape stood up, walked to the Pensieve and entered the memories.

"What if this doesn't work Gin?", Harry asked, looking at his wife nervously.

She took his hand. "Then we go to plan B. We tell Rita Skeeter."

* * *

"He made seven?" Dumbledore asked the moment he came out of the Pensieve.

"He did Professor." Harry confirmed.

"Harry, from what I've seen in the memories, you can call me Albus". Dumbledore said, kindly. His tone of voice had changed to one of admiration.

"Thanks Prof- I mean, Albus. Wait. Does that mean you believe us?" Harry asked, hopefully.

Surprisingly, it was Snape who replied.

"We do."

Ginny clapped her hands. "Excellent. Now. Can we get some Firewhiskey? And maybe cancel all your appointments. This next part will take a while to explain."

August 20th, 1991

"This is madness" Snape said.

"Yes, we know!" Ginny replied, rolling her eyes. By her reckoning, it was the millionth time that Snape had repeated that particular sentence.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Dumbledore asked, nervously.

"He's actually nervous! Can you believe that Gin?" Harry asked, laughing.

"His portrait did not say anything about this!" Ginny giggled.

"Don't worry you two. The worst that could happen is that it wouldn't work and we'd live in this paradox for eternity. At least Voldemort would be dead." Harry assured them.

Dumbledore and Snape exchanged a look and brought up their wands.

"I love you Gin".

"Love you too".

"Avada Kedavra" said Snape.

"Avada Kedavra" said Dumbledore.

"Merge Amino!" the both of them shouted at the bodies of Harry and Ginny Potter, flicking their wands the way Harry had instructed them to. A brilliant shower of Orange and Purple light lighted up the room, before receding. All that was left was the Headmaster of Hogwarts, the Potions Professor from Hogwarts, and two bodies that used to be Harry and Ginny Potter.

Midnight

The occupant of the smallest room of Number Four, Privet Drive woke up with a start. He took a moment to familiarise himself with his surroundings. He smiled and stood up, stretching. Deciding that this time he would be as skinny as his future broomsticks, he went to a cage that contained a snowy white owl. After whispering some words to her, he opened the cage and off Hedwig flew.

Midnight

The occupant of the only bedroom on the first floor of The Burrow woke with a start. She took a moment to familiarise herself with her surroundings. She smiled and stood up, stretching. Realising who else was in the house, she exited her room and quietly went up to the top floor, making sure to miss the squeaky floorboard. She reached the top floor and opened the door. She heard him before she saw him.

Eleven year old Ronald Weasley was soundly snoring. Young and at peace, he looked very different from the pale person who was in St. Mungos in 2025.

She closed the door, silent tears running down her face.

After a few minutes of just standing outside Ron's door, she decided to go back to her room. She needed rest. A soul merge could be tiring.

She got to her room and outside the window was a snowy white owl. She waved at it and it flew off, exactly how she and the owner of the owl had agreed.

Relieved that it had worked for both of them, Ginny went to sleep.

* * *

A/N: I figured out the best way to write details. Write the conversation first, worry about the details later.

Rather than fleshing the whole plan out, I'd rather you enjoy the trip. There will be flashback scenes.


	4. It's time to Rat-tify the Situation

**Merge Animo - Chapter 3 - It's time to Rat-tify the Situation (Get it? Like Rectify but with Rat? Never Mind)**

' _HE'S NOT PETER, HE'S SCABBERS!' Ron yelled, trying to force the rat back into his front pocket, but Scabbers was fighting too hard; Ron swayed and overbalanced, and Harry caught him and pushed him back down to the bed. Then, ignoring Black, Harry turned to Lupin._

' _There were witnesses who saw Pettigrew die,' he said. 'A whole street full of them …'_

' _They didn't see what they thought they saw!' said Black savagely, still watching Scabbers struggling in Ron's hands._

 _Page 201 - Prisoner of Azkaban_

August 24, 1991

Kingsley Shacklebolt had a very strange morning.

Having been an Auror for more than a decade, he had his fair share of strange mornings. They ranged from the mundane kind of strange (guard duty for foreign diplomatic visitors which meant he was a glorified bodyguard) to the more dangerous kind of strange (That time a wizards stag-do led to an appearance of a giant, a goblin and a literal elephant in the room above the Three Broomsticks).

However this Sunday was strange for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it was a Sunday off work. Entry to mid-level active Aurors rarely get weekends off.

Secondly, a phoenix sent him a letter.

Kingsley had just made himself a cup of coffee, was finishing up that days edition of the Daily Prophet and was considering what to do for the rest of the day. He had a choice of watching Puddlemure United play (he had a friend who worked for the teams administration who owed him a long-standing favour), staying at home and sleeping the day away or going to Muggle London to watch a movie (one of his earlier jobs in his career was to take care of some wizard children of a high ranking Muggle politician. He spent two months with them and grew to absolutely adore Muggle culture while also developing a high amount of disdain for Muggle politics).

He was just about to make a decision when a bright flash of red illuminated his whole room. His Auror instincts made him grab his wand and point at the source of the light, lowering it when he realised what he was pointing at.

"Fawkes", he breathed.

As a former Prefect at Hogwarts, he had seen the phoenix a handful of times whenever he had to go the Headmasters office on Prefect business. Seeing the magnificent creature in his room was another matter altogether.

The phoenix held a letter in its beak. It gently put the letter down on the coffee table.

After an eternity at staring, Kingsley shook himself and opened the letter.

 _Kingsley._

 _I have tried contacting your office only to be informed that you have the day off. If you have nothing planned, please join me for lunch at the Leaky Cauldron. If you are unable to attend, please inform me on when we can reschedule. I have a matter of utmost importance to discuss with you that must be handled as swiftly and as quietly as possible._

 _Regards,_

 _Albus Dumbledore._

In his professional capacity, Kingsley had nothing to do with Hogwarts or Dumbledore. However, his Prefect instincts took over. You don't say no when the Headmaster wants to meet you. He went to get a quill and some parchment.

* * *

Kingsley entered the hustle and bustle of the Leaky Cauldron. It was 8 days before Hogwarts was to start a new schooling year and this meant that the bar was full of patrons having lunch, mainly families off to do some last-minute shopping for their children. Kingsley approached Tom the bartender.

"Hiya Tom. Have you seen Professor Dumbledore anywhere?" Kingsley asked.

"You must be Kingsley. He's in the private room upstairs. Up the stairs and to the right" Tom replied cheerfully before attending to another patron.

Kingsley walked the direction given and opened the door.

'Well this beats the elephant in the room', was the only sane thought he remembered, looking back.

"Ah Kingsley. Welcome. I believe you've met Rita Skeeter".

* * *

"I remember that breakfast very well. Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup the previous day and of course, the older members of the team came down from breakfast that day surprisingly under the weather. I was surprised, as the cup had put them very far in the lead for the house cup and it was very rare for any house to win the double. I would have thought that they would be in higher spirits than that. I then remembered. Charlie Weasley was a responsible Seeker and Captain. He was also probably responsible for smuggling in some of Ogden's Finest," Dumbledore said with a chuckle.

Kingsley and Rita did not say a word. Their food was barely touched.

"Charlie barely ate, but I remember him feeding a small brown rat. I, of course, paid no mind to it. This was until the ending of this last term, when I saw Percy Weasley, Charlie's younger brother, feeding a small brown rat. Again, I paid no mind to it. The Weasley's could have just been very fond of rats.."

"One of the new regulations introduced this year by Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures was to register any magical familiar owned by anyone under the Age of 16. That horrible outbreak of Nota Septum last year in Wales that killed over two dozen owls and a couple of dragons. Thus Minerva and I decided to go through the history of familiars registered by Hogwarts student in case we needed to notify them of this new regulation. I then found something strange. Both Charlie and Percy registered the same brown rat, Scabbers".

Rita looked confused. Kingsley looked like he had an inkling what was coming next.

"I had a chat with Professor Kettleburn, the Professor of Care of Magical Creatures. He has never heard of a rat, magical or otherwise, living over 3 years. To have lived that long would only mean one thing". Dumbledore stopped. He knew that Kingsley would give the conclusion. Kingsley did not disappoint.

"Animagus!" Kingsley gasped.

"Five points to Ravenclaw!" Dumbledore said, a huge smile on his face. "Minerva and I have gone through our contacts to see if anybody knew if there were any illegal Animaguses in the form of rats. A few were registered but one of my contacts informed us on an identity of one that isn't. An identity that has greatly disturbed me. This is where you both come in. Kingsley, as an Auror, I would like you to follow me to Ottery St. Catchpole for a spot of tea with the Weasleys".

Kingsley nodded, comprehension growing on him.

"Rita. A trusted friend of mine says that you're very good at creating a narrative", Dumbledore said.

"Oh Albus. Flattery will get you anywhere", Rita cooed.

"I'd like you to supply the narrative in a more productive manner than you have usually done?" Dumbledore said, making sure to emphasise the word, productive.

"Oh Albus. You invite me along while hunting an illegal Animagi, and expect me to play nice?" Rita asked. "What's in it for me?"

"I surmise that this possible capture will make somebody very, very famous. I promise you that you will get exclusive rights to be the first person to interview this future celebrity. He will be ready to be interviewed around Christmas", Dumbledore replied.

"Oh Albus. You are a tease", Rita laughed. "Fine. I'll play nice, for now."

"Excellent. Could you call that photographer of yours to join us as well? I believe his name is Jonah.

August 26, 1991

 _ **PETER PETTIGREW CAPTURED! SIRIUS BLACK FREED!**_

 _An Exclusive by Rita Skeeter of the Daily Prophet_

 _As a reporter, sometimes you follow a story, and in the middle of researching that story, an even bigger story literally falls on your lap. This is one of those instances._

 _Yours truly was concerned about the issues that might come up over the recent calls for more stringent relations between the Magical and Muggle world and decided to interview members of the community who would shed a light on these matters. She went to Devon to interview Arthur Weasley, an official in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office._

 _He had just invited me in to his lovely home and offered me a cup of tea when Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, shows up with a wizard claiming to be from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. They explained that they were there to check the familiars of all the animals under the care of all current Hogwarts students, due to new regulations over last years outbreak of Nota Septum in Wales. This reporter was intrigued that the Headmaster would take such a hand-on approach to such a trivial manner. She followed them into the living room. She forgets that the Great Mugwump always had something up his sleeve._

 _Arthur and his lovely wife Molly gathered their children who brought down their animals with them. Albus and the wizard made a show of checking every animal before checking a small brown rat owned by the youngest son of the Weasleys, Ronald. After extracting the rat from young Ronald, they then hit it with a spell. It turned into a man!_

 _Ladies and Gentlemen. The rat was an Animagus!_

 _After shouts and confusion, Dumbledore had stunned the man and as you can see from the photograph above, he literally fell on my lap._

" _We had received an anonymous tip that an illegal Animagi and former Death Eater had taken refuge with the Weasleys, who were not aware that young Ronald's rat was an Animagus" Dumbledore had explained, after the hubbub and chaos had died down. "I called my Auror friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, to help me capture this Death Eater. Of course, we did not expect it to be Peter Pettigrew," Dumbledore added._

 _And the story does not end there, dear reader. As a witness to the proceedings, your humble reporter was called in to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement to share her part of the incident. As per regulations, the questions asked to me were of course classified, but this reporter can share the results of that day, from a statement given by the Head of Magical Law Enforcement, Madam Amelia Bones_

" _On Halloween Night, 1981, one Sirius Black was arrested and charged with the murder of Peter Pettigrew and twelve Muggles. He was sent to Azkaban without trial and his wand was snapped. After the revelations that Pettigrew was of course, alive, Sirius Black, at the time of print has been freed from Azkaban. He has been given compensation of Two Hundred Thousand Gaellons. Peter Pettigrew is awaiting trial."_

 _This harrowing tale has of course left this reporter, as well as the wizarding community, with a lot of questions. Why was Black not given a trial in the first place? Where did this anonymous tip that Pettigrew was alive come from? What will Pettigrew's capture tell us about those last few days of You-Know-Who's terrible reign?_

 _I assure you, dear reader, that this reporter will not rest until she find the answer to these questions._

Harry grinned, put down the Daily Prophet and laid on his bed.

'Unlikely ally number two. Check'.

* * *

A/N: After my last chapter, I found it a struggle to write this one, and decided to look back at the mythology of Potter. After a week of rediscovery I feel I've done this chapter justice.

As time travel, even one without paradoxes that removes a future timeline like this one, is a big headache, I've decided that you, dear reader, will suffer with me. That means there will be occasional flash back, flash forward and flash-back-forwards.

I've always been inspired by S'Tarkan/Viridian Dreams, whose time-travel fic, Nightmares of Future Past, is a favourite of mine. It's also considered one of the greatest fanfics ever written. Do give it a read and give nice reviews. The writer is currently unable to write due to some medical issues and he's fighting to continue this epic, and I'm sure kind words from all of you would help him fight to write.


	5. The Way Back Home

**Merge Animo - Chapter 4 - The Way Back Home**

 _He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble — leaning forward on his cart, he broke into a heavy run — the barrier was coming nearer and nearer — he wouldn't be able to stop — the cart was out of control — he was a foot away — he closed his eyes_

 _Ready for the crash —_

 _It didn't come…he kept on running…he opened his eyes. A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts' Express, eleven o'clock. Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words Platform Nine and Three-Quarters on it, He had done it._

Page 54 - Sorcerer' Stone

September 1, 1991

Severus Snape rarely looked forward to the new school year. This was especially true when it came to first years. Not only did he have to spend the first 6 months ingraining the culture of Potions for the little idiots, he had to be on the lookout for troublemakers, usually Gryffindors and their obvious propaganda to give him a hard time.

However, based on the fact that he was now crouched against a corner of Kings Cross Station, Disillusioned and waiting for Potter and the Weasleys to arrive so that the next part of the plan could be put into action, he had a feeling that Hermione Granger would surely be the bane of his existence.

August 11, 1991

"And why, Potter, must I be the one who has to do this?" Snape asked, clearly unhappy about what was presented to him.

"Mainly because Dumbledore would be busy preparing Hogwarts for the new year. Hermione surmised that your disappearance for an hour or two in the morning would be unnoticable. Mainly because you spend most of the day reciting your speech to intimidate first years and no other staff members see you until the feast," Potter replied, with a devillish smile.

"How did you know that?!" Snape exploded.

"Your portrait, of course!" Weasley replied with a horrible grin on her face.

"Look. Severus," Potter started. "You will discover in this coming year, and in death because of your portrait, that it's very hard to argue with Hermione Granger".

September 1, 1991

Severus arched his back. He was getting too old for this. He needed a drink.

"Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman.

"Hello, dear," Molly replied. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."

She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. Ron was tall,thin, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.

Harry felt a lump in his throat. He hadn't seen his best friend in 6 months. He had missed him dearly.

"Do you want to get on the platform?" Piped a little voice. Harry turned to see little Ginnty Weasley, a big mischievous grin on her face. "Come on I'll show you! I've seen my brothers go through loads of times!" She immediately took control of the other side of Harry's trolley handlebars and started pushing.

"Be careful Ginny dear!" Molly shouted, alarmed.

Ginny and Harry ignored her and ran straight through the barrier. They emerged on the other side.

Snape saw the moment Harry and Ginny had run through the barrier. He took his chance.

"Depulso"

The front right wheel of Harry's trolley exploded and Harry and Ginny lost control. They, along with Harry's belongings as well as Hedwig, crashed to the floor.

Groaning from real pain (because they expected as much), Harry felt something moving in his right pocket.

"Got it. Thanks Snape," he whispered.

"Same here," he heard Ginny mutter.

A few seconds later they heard a massive scream.

"Oh Ginny! What happened! I told you to be careful!" Molly and Ron rushed to her daughter's side. "Ron I've got Ginny. Go check up on the boy".

"Don't worry. I can feel everything. Nothings broken," Harry replied in a reassuring voice.

"Same here", Ginny replied, standing up and dusting her dress. "We don't know what happened Mom. The trolleys front wheel suddenly broke after we got through the barrier. But I'm alright," Ginny reassured her.

"Ron. Go get another trolley and help pick up the luggage. Are you alright young man?" Molly asked, turning to Harry.

"Yes, I'm fine. Thank you though," Harry replied humbly while looking at Molly. She had such a kindness about her that reminded Harry why she was the closest thing he had to a mother, marriage relations notwithstanding.

"Thanks for helping me. Sorry that happened. I'm Harry by the way," he held out his arm. Ginny took it and shook it. Molly had a look at the scar.

"Oh Harry. Harry Potter!" Molly exclaimed. She didn't see Ginny, who had rolled her eyes.

* * *

Harry and Ron chatted while pressed on through the crowd until they found an empty compartment near the end of train. Harry put Hedwig inside first and then they started to shove and heave their trunks toward the train door. They tried to lift the trunks up the steps but Harry could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on his foot.

"Want a hand?" George piped up behind.

"Yes, please," Harry panted.

"Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"

With the twins' help, Harry and Ron's trunks were at last tucked away in different corners of the compartment.

"Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes.

"What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.

"Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you —?"

"He is," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.

"What?" said Harry.

"Harry Potter." chorused the twins.

"Oh, him," said Harry. "I mean, yes, I am. Wait a minute. There's two of you?"

"Oh, a future Ravenclaw," teased George.

"Red hair. Are you the Weasley twins?" Harry asked, faking a look of fear on his face.

"Yes we are. How did you know?" Fred asked.

"They warned about you in our letters. 'Weasley twins. Red-haired tricksters. Highly dangerous. Approach with care. Do not accept any food or gifts offered,'" he said.

The twins paled.

"Brother of mine. I think our reputation has gotten a bit out of hand if they're warning about us in Hogwarts letter," Fred started.

"Wait a minute. My letter didn't say anything about you two!" Ron exclaimed, looking puzzlingly at Harry.

That's when Harry cracked and started laughing. After a minute of comprehension, Ron and the twins joined him.

"Well done Harry. We are seriously impressed!" George said, offering his hand after removing a tear from his eye.

"Too right. Not many first years could pull a fast one over us!" Fred surmised, offering his hand as well. Harry did not miss a beat and shook both at the same time.

"Fred? George? Are you there?"

"Coming, Mom."

With a last grin at Harry, the twins hopped off the train.

"That was brilliant Harry!" Ron exclaimed, sitting down near the window.

"Thanks for the warning Ron," he replied.

Harry looked out at the window where the twins were saying goodbye to their mother. It was nice to see George with two ears, and Fred who was alive again.

* * *

"So Harry. Have you heard about Sirius Black?" Ron asked. The train had just left Kings Cross.

"Who's that?" Harry questioned. His heart thumped. He didn't realise that he would be talking about it this early. Still it was already a week since Pettigrew was caught.

"Mom told the twins and I that if we met you to talk to you about it. She and dad want to apologise to you," Ron said.

"Apologise to me? I should be the one apologising. I hurt your sister earlier!" Harry said.

"No not about that. That was an accident. Well. This story's a bit long. Bear with me. We Weasley's aren't that well off you see. We don't really have new wands or pets when we start Hogwarts. I'm using a hand-me-down wand and I was supposed to inherit this rat from my older brother, Percy. Percy just got an owl and didn't need a rat. Scabbers," Ron said the name with an anger that reminded him of Ron during the Horcrux hunt.

"Well last week Professor Dumbledore, you know Professor Dumbledore, right?" Ron asked.

Harry shook his head.

"He's the Headmaster of Hogwarts. Dad reckons he's the greatest wizard in the world," Ron continued. "Well last week Professor Dumbledore comes with this bloke from the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creaturesand a reporter, Rita something. He says he's there to check that all the animals in our house going to Hogwarts are safe because there was a bad outbreak of some disease in Wales last year. Rita was there to write a story about it. The outbreak killed a dozen or so magical animals.

So we brought our animals down to have a look. After checking Hermes, Percy's new owl, he takes Scabbers and points his wand. And then the animal turns into a man!"

"Wait, what?" Harry replied, feigning shock. "Magical animals can do that?"

"No, they can't. He's an Animagus. Those are wizards who can turn themselves into animals. Apparently this bloke was named Peter Pettigrew, and he was a dark wizard from the first time You-Know-Who was around," Ron said.

"You mean Voldemort?" Harry asked. He wanted to break the habit as early as possible.

"Don't say his name!" Ron gasped. "Anyway. Apparently this bloke, Peter Pettigrew had framed this wizard Sirius Black after Pettigrew had killed a dozen Muggles. He faked his death, turned into a rat and came to hide with us. Black's been in Azkaban ever since. They caught Pettigrew and Black was released last week"

Harry stayed silent for a while. "Okay, Ron, but what does this have to do with your family apologising to me?" he asked.

"Well mate, dad wanted us to tell you. Sirius Black's your godfather," Ron said, with a gulp.

Harry started the silent game again. Being married to Ginny did teach him a few things. After a few moments of tense silence, he spoke up.

"I have a godfather?" Harry asked.

"Apparently so," Ron replied.

Harry looked at Ron before giving him the biggest smile he could.

"Ron, please tell your family thanks from me! It sounds like they didn't know that they were taking care of Peter Pettigrew, but because of them now I have a godfather!" Harry stood up and gave a holler. Ron looked at him like he'd gone mad.

"Seriously Ron. One day I'll tell you about the Muggles I'm staying with, and you'll know why its wicked that I have a godfather!" Harry said with a big smile on his face.

Ron let out a breath of relief. Apparently this was something that worried him.

"I'm sorry that you lost a rat though. I'll introduce you to Hedwig when we arrive at Hogwarts. She's my owl. I'm sure she'll be friends with you as well," Harry said.

"Oh don't worry mate. Dad got quite a bit of money as reward. Apparently Dumbledore told the Ministry that we helped capture him. They got me a new pet from that money. Oh, that reminds me. I left her with Fred. Let me go take her," Ron said, exiting the compartment quickly.

A strange quiet filled the compartment while Harry waited for Ron to return. Already, the timelines were diverging unexpectedly. Ron had said more in the first half an hour of the train ride than he did during the previous timelines train ride.

Harry was so lost in thought that he did not realise that Ron had returned till Ron had shoved his new pet in front of Harry's nose.

He felt the colour drain from his face.

"Say hello to Crookshanks!"

 _No_ , he thought. _This cannot be happening._ Harry gave Crookshanks a pat and Ron sat down, putting the Kneazle on his lap.

"Apparently he's been in the shop for ages. Nobody wanted him because they thought he was ugly? Aren't you, you ugly ball of fluff!" Ron said, scratching his neck. The cat replied by hitting his face with his bushy tail.

"He's a Kneazle. They're really smart animals. They can usually sniff out suspicious type in half a second. You're gonna eat future rat Animaguses aren't you?" Ron asked it's smushy face. A loud meow was the reply.

The countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and a round-faced boy Harry had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.

"Sorry," Neville said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Harry.

"Yes," said the boy miserably. "Well, if you see him…" He left.

"Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could. Mind you, I had Scabbers, so I can't talk."

The cat was snoozing happily on Ron's lap. Harry was about to ask about Ron's family when the compartment door slid open. This time it was a bushy-haired girl that Harry knew only too well.

"Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," Hermione asked. "Oh is that a Kneazle?" she asked, pointing to Crookshanks. "I heard they're really clever cats."

"Right in one," Ron replied. "His name's Crookshanks. Would you like to pet him?"

 _Well, this is unexpected,_ Harry thought, as Hermione took a seat next to Ron and started stroking Crookshanks fur. The Kneazle purred in response but was still asleep. _This is a bit more positive than the first time they talked._

"I'm Ron Weasley," Ron said.

"Harry Potter," said Harry.

"Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course — I got a few extra books, for background reading. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, I've heard — I've learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I'm Hermione Granger, by the way. Harry, you're in Modern Magical History and The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts and Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century."

Harry resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. He and Ginny had once read those books for a bit of fun. Ginny was so enraged at the falseness of facts that she sent a letter to the publishers of those books threatening to either sue them or burn their offices to the ground. The newer editions of the books had facts croscchecked by the Potter and Weasleys and retraction and an apology to Harry.

He decided to use a different approach. "I read those books. They're rubbish".

Hermione's eyes went wide. Surely no one would challenge her beliefs in the printed word.

"They mentioned that I was raised up in luxury with my Muggle relatives. The truth is I was close to being their maid, not that there's anything wrong with being a maid, but I was only paid in food and board, and my room was a cupboard under the stairs for a long time," Harry continued.

Ron and Hermione looked shocked and appalled.

"Oh I'm so sorry," Hermione said. Her eyes were brimming with tears.

"Don't worry about it. I don't have to see the Dursleys for most of the year now," Harry replied, smiling. "What house do you think you'll end up in, Hermione?"

"I hope I'm in Gryffindor,it sounds by far the best; I hear Dumbledore himself was in it, but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad...Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You two had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon," Hermione said, standing up and exiting the compartment. She gave them both a wave before continuing her search for Trevor.

"Whatever house I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.

 _Yet you two end up having babies and one of them nearly dated a Malfoy,_ Harry mused. _Oh speaking of Malfoys..._

Three boys entered, and Harry recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop who would end up technically being Harry's almost-brother-in-law. Who would have thought? He was looking at Harry with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.

"Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that Harry Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

Harry decided to let things go along the same way it did before. He had already taken care of Draco's fate. Draco didn't know it yet.

* * *

 _"Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,_

 _But don't judge on what you see,_

 _I'll eat myself if you can find_

 _A smarter hat than me…"_

Harry decided to tune out the hats song and have a look around the Great Hall. His eyes wandered to the Hufflepuff table.

 _Cedric,_ he thought.

Cedric was an enigma to Harry. Even though he was kind and brave when Harry first knew him, there was another timeline due to the dealings of Scorpius and Albus that led to Cedric becoming a Death Eater. He remembered a conversation with the two boys, Hermione and the portraits of Dumbledore and Snape

 _March 11, 2027_

" _Essentially he was so embarrassed and jealous over Dad winning the Triwizard tournament that he became a Death Eater out of spite", Albus said._

" _Spite is a powerful emotion. It certainly helped me choose to follow the Dark Lord in the beginning. Especially when I heard that Lily and James had joined the Order," Snape's portrait replied._

" _It's the same thing everywhere isn't it? People who are so unhappy with their lot in life that they just jump at the first opportunity to change it, consequences be damned. They'll choose the biggest idiot with the loudest voice as long as he says the right things.," Hermione said. "Just look at the Muggle politicians of these past ten years. If Farage was a wizard I would have sent him to Azkaban for all the horrible things he has said and done". Hermione was still not happy that she had to spend a year working with him. Luckily the Muggles knew how to start a revolution._

" _I think Harry, that in Cedric's case, we have three different consequences," Dumbledore said. "He either dies, lives to become a Death Eater, or lives to fight for us. What's important is that we don't embarrass him to the point that he turns against us."_

" _Cause, you know, I'd like to be alive someday," James said._

Harry was brought out by his musings when heard the name, "MALFOY, DRACO".

The hat was barely on Malfoy's head when it obeyed the plans set by Harry and Ginny three weeks ago.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

* * *

A/N: This was going to be a longer chapter, but I decided that it needed to breathe it a bit, so I'm cutting it here.

ThunderSphinx: I could not find anywhere that showed whic house Kingsley was sorted in. I'm going by the Slughorn rule. He was a Slytherin but in his finest hour he went back to help fight Voldemort. Good and evil are everywhere. It's about the choices you make with them. Also with Sirius, I have something different planned. Wait and see


	6. (Insert Sirius Pun Here)

**Merge Animo - Chapter 5 - (Insert Sirius pun here)**

August 11, 1991

Dumbledore was looking at Snape who was looking at Ginny who was grinning at Harry who was smiling at the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat, if it had proper facial expressions, would have given the couple a look of utter contempt.

"Never, in my years of doing this service, have I been asked to do something that is absolutely against every principle I was made for!" the Sorting Hat said angrily.

"Look. I understand that you serve a purpose. However, time, fate, causality, the universe, quantum physics, some higher power or whatever you want to call it, has allowed us to come back in time," Ginny replied in a calm manner.

"Something as smart as you would know that if what we did was really wrong, it would open up a hole in the fabric of time and space big enough for us to stop it," Harry continued. "It didn't happen with Albus and Scorpius because they wanted to change only one thing, each time they travelled back. It's different for us. We're changing A LOT of things. The law of physics theoretically should have wiped us from existence the moment we asked Madam Rosmerta for a room."

"Technically, we are playing God," Ginny said. "However, whatever we're doing now apparently is not disagreeing with our actions so far, even though we haven't done anything major yet. If it did we'd probably hear a huge explosion somewhere and then we'd all be vaporized."

"Now that you have that in mind, do us these two things," Harry asked calmly. "Quite a number of people you will be sorting tomorrow will not see it past their eighteenth birthday. Wouldn't you like to show that Gryffindor part of you?"

The Sorting Hat was quiet for a while.

"Fine," it said, after an eternity of silence. "But if I you make me regret this I will make sure the Sword of Gryffindor falls on your head, blade first!".

* * *

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Silence filled the Great Hall. Malfoy, already gifted with a pale complexion, could have passed as a Hogwarts ghost, as all the colour drained from his face. He started shaking on his seat.

"W-what?" He stuttered, ending the silence.

Professor McGonagall, true to form, was the first to snap out of her shock.

"Mr. Malfoy. Please join your housemates at the Hufflepuff table," she said, taking the hat off Malfoy's head. The boy stood up shakily and walked slowly to his house table. Harry could see that he was close to tears. Whispered mutterings were heard around the Great Hall.

Pansy Parkinson, who was standing a few feet behind Harry, muttered, "His father is going to kill him!"

 _Not if I can help it,_ Harry thought. _If things go to plan, Lucius Malfoy will never hurt anyone ever again._

The rest of the Sorting went exactly like it did before, and Harry was busy eating while half-listening to the conversations happening all around him. In truth he was conserving his energy as it was going to be a long night.

As he was finishing his dessert he decided to have a look at the teacher's table. Dumbledore was chatting with McGonagall and Snape, no doubt discussing Malfoy's sorting into Hufflepuff. He then turned to Snape's right and Quirinus Quirrel was busy eating. However, something that hadn't happened in a long time occured.

Harry felt a jolt in his scar. He immediately rubbed his temple.

"You alright mate?" Ron asked.

"Yup. Just a brain freeze. Too much ice cream," he joked.

Ron bought it and continued wolfing down his dessert.

 _A month,_ Harry thought. _One month and you're gone, you bastard!_

* * *

Stepping into his old room in Gryffindor Tower felt like saying hello to an old friend. Even though Harry had visited Hogwarts often when his children were growing up, it was in no way similar to actually stepping into a room that was his again.

Shaking nostalgia out of his thoughts, he discreetly pulled out what Snape had given him in his pocket, putting them under his pillow. He quickly changed into his pyjamas, wished the others a good night and closed the curtains of his four-poster bed. He quickly casted silencing and repelling charms around his bed as to not be disturbed. No doubt a recurrence of his scar hurting would bring back old forgotten nightmares. However, that was not his plan.

From under his pillow he took out a small brown envelope, a note and a large piece of fabric, the Invisibility cloak. The note had only one word, "Midnight". Opening the envelope, he took out a gold Galleon coin and a small mirror. He tapped the coin, which glowed for a second. After a couple of minutes, the Galleon glowed back and he put the mirror up to his face. What greeted him was the face of a red-haired little girl.

"Hello gorgeous," He said.

"Hello yourself," Ginny replied. "I've missed you".

"I miss you too," Harry said. "I won't be seeing you for nine months."

"You're seeing me now silly!" Ginny giggled. "How was your day? Everything went to plan?"

"Hermione's convoluted plan seems to be going off without a hitch," Harry answered. "Thanks for not warning me about Crookshanks though!" He growled playfully.

Ginny giggled, "I wish I could have seen your face. Mind you, I screamed when Ron brought him home. I had to fake that I just couldn't stand to see how fluffy he is."

"What about your end? Everything done?" He asked.

"Indeed. All the wards are in place. Luckily mom's been too busy sorting out the boys packing to notice me going around with my wand. How was Draco's face?" she asked.

"Priceless. I'll show you a Pensieve one day," Harry replied. "Dumbledore sent me a note. The meeting is set for midnight."

"Oh excellent. I took an afternoon nap so I can stay up and watch," she said.

"Well I'm exhausted. I'm going to have a couple of hours sleep before going. I'll tell you when we're starting. Night Gin. Love you."

"Love you too."

* * *

Harry's wand vibrated twenty minutes to midnight and he woke up.

 _Bless the Unspeakables,_ He thought. _They do some scary things but creating an alarm spell is pretty brilliant._

He pulled the curtain slightly to view the room. It was quiet except for Ron's snoring. After tapping the gold coin again, he placed the coin and mirror in his pocket, gingerly got up and got under the cloak. He slowly made his way out of his room. Luckily there was nobody in the common room. He made his exit from Gryffindor tower.

Harry blessed whatever deity that made his journey uneventful that night. It wouldn't do to be caught on his first night at Hogwarts. Luckily he didn't encounter anyone as he reached the seventh floor.

After doing the necessary pacing a big brown door appeared on the wall. He pushed the door and took off his cloak.

The Room of Requirement had been transformed into a simple living room with a fireplace. There were couches placed around the room. Dumbledore, Shacklebolt and Snape took a single couch each. Another couch was occupied by a brown haired lady that Harry had only met a couple of times in his previous life, but had respected greatly. Amelia Bones looked confused as to why she was there.

The bigger couch was currently occupied by two people that Harry was very much looking forward to see. He took out his mirror and angled it so that it reflected the two faces.

"Hello Sirius. Hello Remus. I've missed you!"

August 25, 1991

Bracing against the chilly winds of the North Sea, Remus Lupin was always surprised that of all the qualities that he possessed, being calm was one of them. Having to suffer through a transformation once a month that made him a ravenous werewolf must let out any anger that he kept to himself throughout the rest of the month. Unlike the man who bit him when he was a child, Fenrir Greyback, Remus was proud that for at least 27 days a month, he was a calm normal person. James once said that he was calming presence the Marauders always needed. While James and Sirius were indeed the hooligans of the group, Remus would always try to bring some sense to whatever the rest of them had planned.

Dumbledore's letter this morning, however, seemed to test that quality.

 _Remus_

 _This story will break out in the papers tomorrow, but I thought you should hear it from me._

 _Peter Pettigrew is alive. He has been caught and questioned under Veritaserum. He has proven that Sirius Black is innocent and will be freed today, around noon. If you are available could you please meet him at the Port of Thurso when he arrives by boat. Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt will be bringing both of you to a room I've rented in Hogsmeade. I will answer any questions you have as soon as possible._

 _Please reply using Fawkes immediately._

 _Regards,_

 _Albus Dumbledore_

Remus was overcome with a flurry of emotions. He raged and wanted to go to the ministry and burn whatever cell Peter was in to the ground. With Peter in it. He wanted to fly to Azkaban straight and get Sirius out of there, Dementors be damned.

After a few moments of complete panic, he calmed down. Remembering his Occlumency training from his years with the Order of The Phoenix, he managed to sort his emotions in order. Whatever else could wait. Sirius needed him.

Remus was standing by the beach of Thurso, waiting patiently under the sun. After a few moments, he saw a boat slowly coming in from the sea. As it got closer, Remus saw two men on the boat. One was a dark skinned bald man, who he surmised must be Kingsley Shacklebolt. The other was a face he had not seen in a decade.

As the boat landed on the beach Shacklebolt helped Sirius up and out of it. Remus walked towards them.

"You must be Remus. Kingsley," he said, offering his hand. Remus took it. He then turned to Sirius. The two old friends looked at each other for a while. Sirius had gotten a fresh shave and haircut, no doubt given just before he left the prison. He still looked deathly ill and malnourished. He was eyeing Remus with a wild wary look, as though he was dreaming and was very afraid that he would wake up and still be in prison.

"It's been a while," Remus started. "You don't write, you don't Floo. I guess you've been busy."

Sirius looked at him for the longest time. And then he let out a grunt. The grunt continued and Remus realised that it was the first time that Sirius had laughed in ten years.

"I've been too popular for you Lupin," he said in a hoarse voice.

The two men hugged.

* * *

Apparently whatever Sirius, Remus, Kingsley and Amelia were expecting, they were not expecting Harry Potter. They were definitely not expecting Harry Potter to be holding up a mirror. They were _definitely_ not expecting the face of a little girl with red-hair to appear on it.

"Hello everyone!" Ginny said. Waving.

"I told you that they'd look like that! You owe me 10 Galleons!" Harry said triumphantly.

"Harry we're still poor. I'll pay you after my first match with the Harpies," she replied.

"Wha-what's going on Albus?" Amelia asked, a gobsmacked expression on her face.

Dumbledore, it seemed, was enjoying himself. He had a small chuckle. Even Snape, sallow as he usually was, was twitching his lip. He had his wand out, as old habits and hatred for Sirius Black died hard, but was clearly enjoying himself.

"Patience, Amelia," Dumbledore said. "Harry will explain everything very soon."

"Yes, I will," Harry replied. "Just give me a second to stick this on top of the mantle. I don't want to hold Ginny up for too long."

"Excuse me!" Ginny said. "I seem to remember that you enjoy holding me up."

"Not now!" Harry hissed. "We're still kids to them. Keep it in your pants!" Harry said.

Ginny giggled as Harry performed a charm and stuck the mirror on top of the mantlepiece. He then took a free couch and look at all the occupants in the room. The room was deathly silent. Next to Dumbledore and Snape, everyone else had a horrified look on their face.

"What the hell is going on?" Sirius asked, angrily. "Why is Harry here? He's supposed to be in his bed asleep. Why is there a little girl in the mirror? What do you mean he'll answer everything?"

"Calm down, Sirius," Harry said, patiently.

"Calm. That word and Black in a sentence is an oxymoron", Snape drawled.

"Shut up, Snivellus. Why are you here? Shouldn't you be with the other vampires?" Sirius growled.

Snape pointed his wand to Sirius, palpable rage on his face. Sirius mirrored him.

"PROTEGO DIRECTUM!" Harry shouted, his wand up. A flat shield appeared between Snape and Sirius. "PUT YOUR WANDS DOWN BOTH OF YOU YOU'RE ACTING LIKE CHILDREN!" he shouted. He did the same whenever little James and Albus would get in a row that turned physical.

If Kingsley and Amelia were shocked before, this didn't help. It was not everyday that an eleven year old would do a spell that wasn't even invented yet.

Snape and Sirius glared at each other and sat down.

Harry took down the shield but did not let his wand down. He then recited, "I, Harry James Potter, do solemnly swear, that all that I am about to reveal is true and factual."

A bright light engulfed the Room of Requirement. As it subsided, Remus asked, "Harry, was that really necessary?"

Harry ignored him. He started.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy named Harry Potter. His parents died one night when an evil wizard named Voldemort killed them. However when Voldemort wanted to kill Harry, the spell rebounded and Voldemort disappeared. Harry's mom, Lily, had something to do with that.

Eleven years later Harry went to Hogwarts. The first few years he was quite happy. He still fought Voldemort at the end of his first year, saved his future wife Ginny from as Basilisk in the second year, that's Ginny in the mirror by the way, but he was generally happy his first few years in Hogwarts."

Harry could hear Amelia gasp. Trust the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement as the first one to get it.

"At the end of the fourth year however, Voldemort came back to life, this time finding a way to negate Lily's protection of Harry. The war went on for a few years and at the end of what was supposed to be Harry's seventh year, he defeated Voldemort.

However, nearly a thousand witches and wizards, not to mention countless Muggles, died because of a war that lasted three years. Harry, Ginny and the rest of the world of course mourned, but they went on with their lives.

Nearly twenty years after Voldemort was defeated, Ron Weasley, Ginny's brother and Harry's best friend, died because of a delayed reaction to a Horcrux, a magical artifact that Voldemort had created to keep himself alive. Harry, Ginny and Harry's other best friend, Hermione Granger, who's Ron's wife by the way, found out that this was the same case for them as they had been exposed to Horcruxes for an extended period of time as well."

Harry stopped for a second to look at everyone. While Dumbledore and Snape knew all of this, the rest had horrified looks on their faces. Sirius was still recovering from his decade long bout in Azkaban, but if it was possible, looked even paler.

"Hermione, who is the smartest witch in her generation, found out about an old project from the Department of Mysteries. She found that there's a spell that was created in Ancient Rome, called the Merge Animo, that would let two souls merge with each other. It was rarely used because who would want two souls in one body? Also it required the death of the first soul's body and precise handiwork. There were cases of it happening, but it usually ended badly.

She did theorise, however, that if the two souls that merged were from the same person, the physical and psychological effects would be negated because they were essentially the same soul. They would just be adding memories and knowledge.

That's when Harry and Ginny decided to time travel to a month ago and merge their souls with their younger selves. They have a plan that Hermione came up with. It's long, complicated and needs the help of people they can trust. And that's why we're here.

To defeat Voldemort, there's more to be done than just fighting Death Eaters and destroying Horcruxes. There will be a need to change almost everything in Wizarding Britain, so that by the time Voldemort comes back, he'll barely be alive before we strike him down. We've decided to share this with the six of you, because five of you died doing the right thing."

Absolute silence greeted Harry as he ended his story. Dumbledore decided to break the silence. "Alfred".

A wizened old house elf appeared with a pop. "Yes, Headmaster?"

"Bring us some Firewhiskey and the Fire Wine will you, please?" Dumbledore requested.

"Certainly, Headmaster," Alfred replied and disappeared. He reappeared moments later with two levitated trays with bottles and glasses.

And still it was silent.

Until Sirius spoke up.

"Okay Harry. So why the hell is Snape here?"

* * *

It took them a couple of minutes to calm the old rivals down. After Snape and Sirius took their seats, Harry let the shield charm down again and set about explaining the roles of each member in the room.

"Madam Bones," Harry said, turning to Amelia. "It's a pleasure to formally meet you."

"The pleasure is mine, Mr. Potter. Although I expected that it would have been a few years till I would have properly met you," she replied. Amelia was not unkind, but seemed guarded. "What would you like me to help you with?"

"Fudge is an idiot," Harry said, matter-of-factly.

Apparently she wasn't expecting that. "Why do you say so Mr. Potter?"

"He's been in office a year. Has he done anything to actually help the community?"

"Not so far, although I must admit that my focus is on Law Enforcement rather than the politics of it all," she replied.

"Well, he's going to get worse. He's a spineless worm that only follows the words of moneymen like Lucius Malfoy and yes-men, er, I mean people like Dolores Umbridge," Harry spat out. To his satisfaction, Amelia seemed to blanch at that name. Apparently Umbridge was already unpopular long before she came to Hogwarts in the previous timeline.

"So are you suggesting, Mr. Potter, that we get rid of Minister Fudge?"

"Yes and no," Harry replied, with a smirk. "Yes, we get rid of Fudge, but no, that's not the only thing we do. We need to completely overhaul the British Wizarding Governance system."

The whole room, Snape and Dumbledore include, stared at Harry with wide eyes. He had not told the two professors this particular part of the plan.

* * *

Amelia left the meeting using the Room of Requirements fireplace. Harry went to the next two people he had to brief.

"Sirius. Remus. I've missed you greatly," Harry said.

"I miss them too!" Ginny, who had stayed quiet throughout the whole meeting, piped up. "Remus, Teddy sends his love!"

"Teddy?" Remus asked, confused.

"Your son," Ginny replied.

Remus' eyes went wide. The usually calm professor was, if possible, even more speechless. And this was after the revelations of time travel..

"Don't worry," Ginny added. "He's only like you in terms of a sense of humor and settling down later in life. The rest, he inherits from his mom. He's not a werewolf!"

"Enough Gin! He's going to have a heart attack," Harry growled.

"You never let me have any fun!" Ginny shouted back.

"Three years!" Harry replied. It shut her up, although she did give him crude sign.

"Harry," Sirius started. "I'm bloody glad I'm free, and I'm bloody glad you know me and we don't have to go through the whole awkward getting-to-know-your-godfather phase. But what the hell!" He raged. "This is the craziest, stupidest, dumbest idea I've ever heard. And I was sent to Azkaban, so that's saying something!"

"Never thought I'd see the day that I agree with Black over something," Harry heard Snape mutter. Harry ignored him.

"You two can ask me any questions you want, although not right now. I just want to brief you quickly and then go to sleep. I am physically eleven and I've got a full day of classes tomorrow. So shut your mouths both of you," Harry snapped. He must be tired. He felt cranky all of the sudden.

"I want you two to rest for a month. Eat some food, get fitter, buy better clothes, find a house and when you're properly up for it, come back. You've got some Horcruxes to hunt." Harry finished with a feral grin.

* * *

Harry was very surprised that Sirius and Remus gave him a hug when they left. Even though he was technically a stranger and much older than they were, with a plan that was ridiculously idiotic and insane, his late father's best friends still very much cared for him. He turned to Kingsley.

"Kingsley. Have you heard of MI6?"

* * *

A/N: I've just realised that the previous page breaks I've done using "~" did not appear. Apparently the site does not allow it. Thus the underlines have appeared.

There you go, a bit more fleshing out of the whole plan. But not all of it. As River Song would say, Spoilers.

If you're wondering, the answer is no. No sex scenes. Heavy flirting, yes. Sex scenes, I'll leave it to writers more imaginative than I am.

In case you're wondering, of course I've borrowed some things from other writers. I am in no way smart enough to figure things out by myself. Viridian Dreams and Ruskbyte are two of them. However I hope that whatever twists I've given would prove that it's homage to my favourite fanfic writers rather than plain copying.

Gin110881: Thanks for your lovely reviews of each chapter. Don't worry. What I have in mind is quite different from whatever has been done, I hope. What happens to Malfoy, of course, will be fun to see. I do suggest that you read The Cursed Child. Ginny, Scorpius and Ron are awesome in the book.

TroyWeb: Oh whatever you think is going to happen to Draco Malfoy, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Thanks to all the reviewers who have pointed out my mistakes. I will endeavour to make sure my upcoming chapters are mistake-free.


	7. Dungeons and Dragons Corridors and Draco

**Merge Animo - Chapter 6 - Dungeons and Dragons, Corridors and Dracos**

The most dangerous part of being a time-traveller who is trying to blend into the period they've travelled to is showing over-familiarity. One would not do well to show off what they know too much, even though it might lead to greater short-term success. However, showing nothing at all would lead to wasted opportunities. With some high level Arithmancy and general common sense, future-Hermione had set a system to balance these two traits.

Show you're good at something, but have logical reasons to back it up.

"Professor, is Transfiguration just the manipulations of genes and molecules?" Harry asked at the end of the class, when McGonaggall asked if they had any questions.

"What do you mean, Mr Potter?" McGonaggall replied.

"I read in a Muggle science-book that research has argued for the theory that humans have the necessary genes to grow feathers, furs and fins. Since you transfigured from being a cat earlier, which is wicked by the way, are we, as wizards and witches, able to control and manipulate our own genes and molecules that enable Transfiguration somehow?" Harry clarified.

McGonagall frowned. However, she didn't look annoyed, more that she was pondering the question. "That is an excellent question Mr. Potter. I must admit I am not as well versed in genetics and molecules as Muggle scientists are, but I have read some of their theories during my years of research and I wouldn't disagree with such a notion, although giving such a definite answer would be considered foolish and arrogant. However, I am very impressed with this critical thinking of yours Mr. Potter. Wizards would find this kind of thinking, to borrow a Muggle-term, 'outside the box'. Five point to Gryffindor!" She said. Her face did not change, but there was warmness in her voice.

Harry was glad. He was doing this logical thinking thing to his previous classes the whole week. This was the perfect way to set up future classes and his ability to get top grades without arousing suspicion. He did want good grades the second time around, but there were more important things to worry about. Bless future-Hermione and her ridiculously complicated ideas.

Next to present-day Hermione Granger, who looked impressed, the rest of the Transfiguration class looked at Harry with wide eyes and open mouths.

"That was brilliant mate," Ron said over lunch. "I don't understand much about Muggle science but I understood that."

"That was really clever Harry," Hermione said. "You must have been very good in primary school."

"Not really," Harry replied meekly. "Dudley used to bully me to do this homework, so I had to study everything twice."

Ron and Hermione did not look pleased.

"That cousin of yours sounds like a real piece of work," Ron said.

"I agree with Ron. He sounds terrible," Hermione said.

"Don't worry about it. I did enjoy learning. At least here I'm with smart people like you two," Harry replied.

"You mean Hermione, mate. It's already Thursday and I still have no idea what's happening," Ron said, referring to their first week at Hogwarts. Harry, having brought up three children, understood way too well how youngsters would feel out of place at a new environment. "It's a bit too much to take in." His ears were going red.

"Ron, you've lived with magic since you were born. Harry and I just got started in this world. In terms of living with magic, you know more than we do," Hermione said. Ron seemed confused by this.

"What do you mean?"

"Look at it this way. We're not allowed to do magic outside Hogwarts till we're seventeen, yeah?" Harry asked. Ron nodded. "So how are witches and wizards who are underage doing their chores in a wizards household. Are there magic washing machines to do laundry with? Or do you do everything by hand? Or do the parents do it and the children just play around without any chores?"

Ron looked thoughtful and started answering. Hermione, true to form, took out a quill and parchment and started writing notes down. Harry smiled at this. He'd rather they start being friends early on, without the use of a troll.

Unlike the previous timeline, Harry was very-much looking forward to the first potions class. The first was that he wouldn't be sharing the class with Draco Malfoy, as the first year Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs only shared Charms together.

The second was Snape and the deal they had.

"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, for those select few who possess, the predisposition... I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death", he started. He turned to Harry.

"Mr. Potter. What do you get if you add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape asked, eyes boring into Harry.

"I don't know sir," Harry replied.

"It's the Draught of the Living Death, Potter. It's used to put wizards or witches to such a deep sleep that the common eye would presume they have died. Well, are you writing this down?" Snape barked to the whole class. There was a distinct scratch of quills as all the Gryffindors and Slytherins were taking notes.

"One point from Gryffindor Potter. You should have read ahead before the school year started," Snape turned to Hermione. "Miss Granger. Where would you find a bezoar?"

"In the stomach of a goat, professor," she answered immediately.

Snape stared at her. It looked like he was visibly going to be sick, when he said the next four words.

"One point to Gryffindor."

August 12th, 1991

It was the second day of Harry and Ginny's briefing with Snape and Dumbledore.

"Look Severus, we're not asking you to turn nice all of a sudden," GInny started.

"We're not expecting you to be our best friend, or go to Quidditch matches wearing all red and shouting going 'Go Potter! Go Weasley! Yay'," Harry continued.

"Although that would be hilarious," Ginny muttered. Harry rolled his eyes.

"But this whole greasy git thing does not help, at all. A lot of people dropped Potions after our fifth-year cause you terrified them," Harry said.

"Maybe they don't have the nerve to handle the subject," Snape sneered.

"Or maybe they think they're bad after getting a string of zeros for not being in Slytherin," Ginny snapped. "Imagine, a whole generation who are so bad at potions, they can't heal themselves or the people around them. Imagine, that generation, in a war, not being able to go to wizarding shops to buy potions because Death Eaters and Snatchers are patrolling Diagon Alley."

Snape narrowed his eyes at her. "What would you have me do?"

"Easy," Harry said. "Be fair. You don't have to be nice, but be fair. If a Hufflepuff turns in a good potions, give them a point or two. If a Slytherin sabotages another student's work, reprimand them. You don't have to take points off but you don't have to be nice to us either. You can still bully me in class. People would still believe you're a spy cause you're a miserable git, but how fair you teach your students would have and could have saved the life of dozens, maybe hundreds of people."

Snape stared at them for a long time. Dumbledore had a small smile on their face. Harry knew from his portrait that Dumbledore wanted this for Snape, who never took his advice to heart.

"Fine," he growled, in spite of himself.

* * *

The class was deathly silent as everyone stared at the head of Slytherin house. The legend was that Snape _never_ gave anyone outside Slytherin any points.

"In spite of what you have heard," Snape said, addressing the shocked silence, "I punish disobedience but I reward hard work. I am not impressed with big egos and big names," he growled, looking at Harry.

"Today we will be learning the Cure for Boils…"

* * *

While Harry was definitely having a better first week than the previous timeline, Draco Malfoy was definitely having a very bad one.

It all started during breakfast on the second day of the term. Malfoy was sitting alone in the Hufflepuff table, as most members of the house were ignoring him. Apparently, his father's reputation was pretty well known among the older students in Hogwarts, and his sorting to Hufflepuff was a big shock to everyone.

He was barely touching his toast when the morning post came. An owl stopped in front of Draco, who relieved it of its letter. Harry watched as he opened it and started reading, growing paler by the second. The young Malfoy then ran off from his table out of the Great Hall.

Harry suspected that Lucius was not happy with what happened. It was confirmed that weekend.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were walking around Hogwarts that Saturday. After he and Ron got lost on the way to their first Transfiguration class, Harry convinced his two friends the importance of getting to know the castle would ensure that the risk of losing points would be at a minimum.

They were walking around the basement corridors near the kitchens when they overheard heated voices that were coming from around the corner. Harry recognised one of the voices as Draco and immediately leaned against the wall. He signalled Ron and Hermione to do the same.

"Harry what are we-" Hermione whispered. Harry put a finger on his lips. He then nodded his head towards the sound of voices and they slowly tiptoed the the edge of the corner. Slowly peeking around, what Harry saw made his blood boil.

Crabbe and Goyle were holding up a clearly injured Malfoy. Theodore Nott was grinning while Pansy Parkinson was laughing.

"That's what happens to blood traitors!" Pansy taunted.

"I am not a blood traitor! I didn't want to go to Hufflepuff!" Malfoy shouted. He started coughing and blood was sputtering out. A small gob of it went on Nott's shoe.

"YOU JUST DIRTIED MY SHOE YOU PIECE OF SHITE!" Nott sscreamedhouted. He then proceeded to punch Malfoy in the stomach. Malfoy fell, doubling over in pain.

"Crabbe, Goyle," Nott started. "Bring him into this room,' he motioned his head towards a door behind him. "Let's show him what happens to blood traitors."

The five of them entered the room, Crabbe and Goyle dragging a screaming Draco in. When the door closed, Harry decided to take action. "Come on. We need to find somebody. Now!" Harry started running back from where he came from, Ron and Hermione following closely behind him.

They didn't see anyone until they reached the Entrance Hall. Harry ran towards a group of chatting Hufflepuffs. One Hufflepuff in particular was very well known to Harry. Cedric saw the trio running towards him and frowned.

"Malfoy's being beaten up by a bunch of Slytherin's! They're in one of the rooms in the corridor near the kitchens." He said in between breaths. _I really need to toughen this body out_ , he thought, panting. The Hufflepuff's stopped chatting and as a whole started running.

"Come on, we need to find a professor," Harry said, and started running again. They rounded the corner and found Snape, walking towards the Great Hall.

"SNAPE!" Harry shouted.

Snape whirled around and saw the trio running. "Potter I will not have you disrespec-"

"MALFOY'S BEING BEATEN UP BY A BUNCH OF SLYTHERIN'S, CORRIDOR NEAR THE KITCHENS!" He continued, ignoring Snape's vitriol.

Snape's eyes hardened and with a swish off his cloak rushed off, leaving an exhausted Harry, Ron and Hermione.

It was two hours later at the Gryffindor Common Room when the three were called by the Head Girl to Dumbledore's office. Ron and Hermione looked pale. Apparently being called to the headmasters office the first week at Hogwarts did not make them feel optimistic at the very leasy.

Harry entered the office, and it was quite a sight. Professors Dumbledore, Snape, Sprout and MacGonagall were there, along with Cedric and the Hufflepuffs and…

"Harry, Ron, Hermione, this is Mr. Malfoy, Draco's father," Dumbledore said, gesturing to the men on his left, a twinkle in his eyes. Harry was pretty sure it was not Legilimency. Dumbledore was clearly enjoying this.

Lucius Malfoy, prim, proper and rarely fazed, looked absolutely furious, and was obviously trying to reign his anger in. The words he said next were probably why.

"I would like to thank the three of you, along with the Hufflepuff group, for saving my son," he said tonelessly. He then turned to Dumbledore, "I am going to visit him at the Hospital Wing now. Albus," he nodded to the headmaster and left the office, refusing to make eye contact with anyone else.

After the door closed, the trio turned their attention to Dumbledore, who started speaking.

"Young Mr. Malfoy is being treated by Madam Pomfrey as we speak. Her early diagnosis is that he had two broken ribs, a concussion, a lot of internal bleeding and a cracked ankle. It would have been much worse if you hadn't got to him in time.

I would like to commend all of you for doing the right thing. Mr. Potter, Weasley and Miss Granger, it was very wise of you to inform someone on the attack on Draco, even though I was sure you were tempted to interfere on your own. Mr. Diggory, Ablar, Smith and Miss Dewey, Strong and Hiddles. It was very brave of you to stop the Slytherins before they did more damage to young Mr. Malfoy. The restraint shown from all of you was also commendable, as if you were to retaliate against the Slytherins I would have had to punish you as well. Instead, after conferring with the Professor's of each of your houses, we have decided to award Gryffindor and Hufflepuff five hundred points each."

All the students, even Harry, had their mouth open. Surely it was some sort of record to have that amount of points in the first week.

"As for the Slytherin students," Dumbledore continued, "As it is still early in the year there are not a lot of points to be deducted, but Professor Snape has suggested the suitable form of punishment. As it is their first infringement, albeit a serious one, the students will be suspended from Hogwarts for a month. They will return to Hogwarts where they will be heavily monitored for the rest of the school year. They will also be restricted from attending any Hogwarts event and are to serve detention every Saturday until the end of the school year."

Hufflepuff looked at Snape, slack-jawed. They could not believe that he, of all people, would suggest such harsh punishment to Slytherins. Snape looked at them sourly.

"Those foolish students did not act in a manner befitting a Slytherin," he explained.

 _I'm impressed Severus,_ Harry thought.

* * *

The man walked up to number 85, Embankment Hall. Even though he was a wizard, he was lucky enough to actually pay attention during his days at the Auror academy. A simple black suit and tie was enough to make him pass off as a Muggle. He hoped the Muggles found his earring stylish, rather than out of place.

He marvelled at the building. Even though it was a Muggle building, it could have proudly passed off as a branch of Gringotts, with is big marble dome with mismatching green windows. They entered the building and approached the reception table. A very stiff man in a very fine suit was eyeing him as he approached.

"I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt. I have a two o'clock with Lord Finch-Fletchley and Mr. McColl," Kingsley told the man.

The man nodded, eyeing Kingsley's earring, and pointed him towards an elevator to his left. "Sixth floor, straight forward down the hallway."

Kingsley muttered his thanks and followed the directions given.

He was about to knock on the door when it was opened.

"Ah. You must be Kingsley," the man who opened the door greeted. He had blonde hair, with streaks of grey at the sides.

"A pleasure to meet you Lord Finch-Fletchley," Kingsley said.

"Please, in this business, first names are faster. Michael is fine," the man said jovially. He gestured to a balding man sitting behind a large table, who was eyeing Kingsley apprehensively. "This is Colin McColl, head of the MI6. Colin, this is Kingsley Shacklebolt. He's what the wizards call an Auror. Catchier than what we call our policemen eh?" he joked.

McColl did not respond. He looked at Kingsley. "Have a seat Mr. Shacklebolt," he gestured to the chairs in front of his desk. "Michael explained about his son, and how there's a whole community of witches and wizards living among us, but I must admit, I still find it hard to believe. How has the intelligence community not come across this before?" He asked.

"Actually, Director McColl, we have all worked together a few times before, mainly during large upheavals around the world," Kingsley said. "While the non-magical world was fighting Adolf Hitler, we had to handle Gellert Grindelwald, who was Hitler's magical right hand man. Grindelwald would test some horrible spells on Jews and homosexuals, just like those mad scientists Hitler had who gave prostitutes malaria to see study its effects. Our American counterparts actually have offices in the CIA and FBI respectively, while the folks in Australia actually had a wizard head ASIS for a bit."

"I see," McColl said, apparently still not convinced. Kingsley sighed.

"Would you like to see proof, Director McColl?" Kingsley asked.

McColl didn't answer. He just nodded. Kingsley took out his wand. Lord Finch-Fletchley's eyes were wide with excitement. Apparently he found the idea of magic quite exciting. Kingsley pointed his wand at McColl's nearly bald head. "Capillos Apparebit" he said with a swish.

Suddenly, McColl's head was full of stylish brown hair. He felt the top of his head. His eyes grew wide, and he cracked a smile. He quickly opened one of his drawers and took out a mirror.

"My god," he marvelled. "I haven't seen this in a long time!"

"Sadly, Director, it doesn't last. Spells like that only last a few hours. Trust me, I would know," Kingsley assured, pointing at his own hairless head. "Started balding when I was 17. Shaved it straight off."

McColl nodded, a small smile on his face. The tenseness of the room had faded. "I guess you better remove this then. I can't go back to the wife with a head full of hair and have it disappear at dinner time," he stated.

Kingsley nodded and pointed his wand at McColl's head again. "Finite."

The hair disappeared, but McColl's smile didn't. "How can MI6 help you, Mr Shacklebolt?"

"Kingsley, please. Well, Director. We need your help. We talked about Hitler earlier and we might have one of those coming up in the near future…"

* * *

A/N: Sir Colin McColl is an actual person, and was the head of MI6 between 1989 to 1994. I'm not great with names so I thought why not just use an actual historical person? This won't be the last time I do it, mind you.

Having Justin's father being part of the government is something I took off Ajarntham's An Interview with Justin FinchFletchley. It's quite an entertaining read.

Gin110881: I don't believe the hat found it that hard. I feel that everyone has a trait from every house. Some just stand out more. The principle of the thing was probably what angered it more.

Fair enough on the post-DH view. I like to take the good and the bad. I loved that Harry and Ginny, Ron and Hermione ended up together and it offsets how upset I am that we never got to see Umbridge's trial (which is a fic I will do in the future, cause that bitch needs what's coming to her).

Slight spoilers for Cursed Child, but Ginny refuses to let Harry deal with things alone. Of course she wouldn't let him talk to the lot of them alone.

TroyWeb: I can see why JK made a society that at the offset, seemed fun, but was really screwed up governmentally and societally. It harkens back to old right-wing governments that were greedy, but also is a reflection on some of the world governments of now. I think she needed to make a complacent government, as it meant they would be weak when Voldemort returned gave his threat more credence. As powerful as he is, Voldemort is only one man. To paraphrase a famous saying, it takes a village to raise a monster.


	8. Feeling Peeves-ish

**Merge Animo - Chapter 7 - Feeling Peeves-ish**

September 12, 1991

The attack on Draco Malfoy and the subsequent suspension of Pansy Parkinson, Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle was not an event that occured in the previous timeline. Harry was then revelling on the greatest thing to have come out of the suspensions.

With Malfoy being in Hufflepuff, that meant there were only to first year Slytherins, Blaise Zabini and Daphne Greengrass. Harry revelled in this. Zabini was a pureblood bigot, but neither he nor the Zabinis were Death Eaters. Daphne was the sister of future-Draco's late wife, Astoria. Harry didn't know much about her, although according to Scorpius the Greengrass' were quite neutral, albeit very rich. _Better elitists than a supporter of genocide, Harry thought_.

This seemed to be a morale booster for all the first-year classes of the other three houses. There were no snide remarks in Charms, no sneers in Transfiguration, and coupled with Snape's new "Tough but Fair" attitude, Potions was actually enjoyable. Harry, who spent years cooking for the Dursleys and a few years more cooking for his children whenever Ginny was away on Quidditch duty and reporting assignments, was actually starting to able to make sense of it all. He didn't even need the Half-Blood Prince's Book.

It was then a surprise that when the first flying lesson came around, the Gryffindors (and Zabini and Greengrass, who maintained a 'cordial, not friendly' attitude towards the Gryffindors. There were going to spend a couple of weeks alone with them in classes after all) were doing it with the Hufflepuff's. Harry deliberately chose to get a broom opposite Malfoy.

Malfoy had spent the day after the attack in the Hospital Wing. Although Harry was sure that Madam Pomfrey had repaired all his injuries within a couple of hours, he was probably held back to rest a bit from the psychological trauma of being beaten up. Malfoy or not, an eleven-year old, especially one as protected and pampered as Draco, would not go through a beating mentally unharmed.

Malfoy had appeared at the Great Hall at breakfast the next day, sullen and quiet. Conversations in the hall had ceased the moment he came in, only to continue moments later, no doubt talking about Malfoy's attack. He had gone to sit down at his usual spot by himself when Cedric Diggory approached him and dragged him to sit down with Cedric's group. By the end of breakfast, although still pale, Draco had seemed to cheer up a bit. It was also a message from the Hufflepuffs to the other houses. No matter who the person was, Hufflepuff's take care of their own. _That could only mean good things for his mental upbringing,_ Harry thought.

Harry felt conflicted over Draco, a feeling that he had discussed with Ginny the night before during their nightly mirror conversations.

"The fact of the matter is, Gin, that we don't actually know which Draco this will turn out to be," he started. "He could end up still being Death Eater Draco, or he could be an accelerated version of the Draco who's actually a good father to Scorpius, or something else entirely."

"And that's true. But we can't really tell can we. Hermione's plan had cause and effect results for ninety-seven percent of our actions. Draco's in that other three percent," she elaborated. "I suggest we wait and see. It might come up at Quidditch tomorrow."

Malfoy was the one who pointed out that Harry was staring at him. "What are you looking at Potter?"

"Nothing, Malfoy," Harry said. "Glad you're alright."

Malfoy gave him a sour look. "Just because you saved me does not make us friends, Potter," he said. "You two as well." He gestured to Ron and Hermione.

Ron looked sour and rolled his eyes. Hermione just nodded. Harry busied himself as Madam Hooch came to view. Luckily, he did hear what Malfoy said next. It was barely a whisper, but all three of them heard it.

"Thanks".

Of course Harry had not anticipated becoming Seeker in his first year again. With Malfoy seeming, not nicer as that was still a stretch, but less combative, he did not expect a recurrence of Neville's Remembrall incident. He even suggested during the planning of the whole thing that he wouldn't play Quidditch until the end. This was very loudly protested by Ginny. And Hermione. And Dumbledore's Portrait. Even Snape's Portrait bitterly admitted that Harry could have gone pro with Ginny if he did not choose to become an Auror.

Somehow, Neville got Harry in the team again.

It could have been the fact that they were with the Hufflepuff's, or each member of Gryffindor used a different broom than in the previous timeline, but when Neville got on his broom, it suddenly zoomed off. Unlike the previous timeline, it zoomed off straight, heading towards the direction of the Forbidden Forest.

Jumping into action, Madam Hooch zoomed off after him. Without thinking, Harry got on his broom and joined her.

Hooch was no doubt using a better broom that the stock school Cleansweep Fives that the students were using. Harry expected to lag behind her, but he was a Quidditch captain at one point of his previous life, and his wife was a Holyhead Harpy. He somehow quickly overtook Hooch and was gaining on Neville. Neville's shouts were getting louder and louder and closer and closer.

"NO, NO, NO, PLEASE, NO, NO STOP!" he shouted.

Apparently, the broom understood the last word, as it stopped and proceeded to spin around, dumping him off the broom. Neville was now falling a great distance. Harry bent down to go faster, because he could see quite clearly where Neville was falling towards.

The Whomping Willow.

Harry could hear Hooch shouting something towards him, but he ignored her. He would not let one of his greatest friends down, figuratively or literally. He could feel himself going faster and faster as Neville got closer and closer to the Whomping Willow. Neville was just two feet away when Harry swerved up and caught his friend by the hand.

 _Oh I really need to work on my upper body strength,_ Harry thought. Neville had not lost the baby fat and was quite heavy for Harry's eleven-year old frame. Harry slowly and gingerly brought his broom down once they were far enough from the Whomping Willow.

When they got to the ground, both of them collapsed, breathing heavily, next to each other on the ground. Harry was pretty sure he heard a sob come from Neville.

"I shouldn't be here Harry," Neville said after a while. Harry felt his heart drop. Neville in the other timeline was one of the bravest men Harry ever met. To see him so insecure and unsure about himself nearly broke Harry. He was about to reply when Madam Hooch reached them.

Hooch was doing double duty. She was busy making sure Neville was not injured, while also berating Harry over his foolhardiness. Harry was too busy looking ashamed to notice that Professor MacGonaggal was waiting with the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students, who were cheering Harry. Even Malfoy was clapping.

 _Damn it,_ Harry thought. _I owe Ginny 5 Galleons now._

* * *

Albus Dumbledore rounded the corner, and there he saw the entity he was looking for.

"Albus, Albus, look everyone it's Albus! The great and mighty Albus!" Peeves sang. Dumbledore chuckled. The memory of the Poltergeist was truly amazing, being able to remember the rhyme he created for Dumbledore in his first year more than a century ago. He decided to cut Peeves off before the poltergeist got to the really rude bits.

"Peeves, school business," he snapped. Peeves stopped and floated still. The poltergeist always had surprisingly high amounts of respect for Hogwarts professors.

"Peeves, Hogwarts needs your help"

* * *

The first month at Hogwarts both felt very short and extremely long. After the first two weeks filled with introduction of classes (or reintroduction, in Harry's case) and the incidents with Malfoy and Neville, the next two weeks were going along at a snails pace, filled with homework and getting used to the culture of Hogwarts.

Apparently the talk Harry and Hermione had with Ron had really helped kickstart him on an all new path of self discovery. Harry knew from experience that even though he was not overall intelligent like Hermione was, Ron was specifically good at quite a number of things; Chess, Quidditch, Catching Dark Wizards, Making joke toys and being a good father. However, Hermione, with Harry's help, had gotten Ron to understand his subjects even faster and better. They had to use analogies to make him understand things (You have to swish the wand down up and up down. Imagine you're holding a beaters bat. One Bludger comes to you and you hit it up. Another one comes immediately straight at you and you hit it down. Yes, Ron, yes that's it) but when he did finally get the analogy, he would get the theory behind the lesson and then would do very well with his homework.

Harry was also glad to see that Neville was warming up to the trio as well. After he had explained what Neville had said after the near collision with the Whomping Willow, Harry, along with Ron and Hermione tried to include Neville in nearly everything they did. He was still shy, but more often than not, he would be seen eating and doing homework with the trio. Harry suspected that it wouldn't be long before the trio would become a foursome.

As September turned to the first day of October, Harry woke up, tense and prepared. Today was the day.

At lunchtime Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville came into the Great Hall and saw that there was an extra person at the head table, sitting next to Dumbledore.

 _Ah,_ Harry thought. _The idiot is here, excellent._

In the middle of lunch, Dumbledore stood up and addressed the students in the hall.

"As you can see, our Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge is here. I have personally invited him for day-long tour of Hogwarts and to discuss the strengthening of cooperation between Hogwarts and the Ministry of Magic. I hope you all make him feel very welcome indeed,"

Dinner that day was the usual affair. Students were eating their body weight in food (at least Ron was), conversing about Quidditch, classes, gossip or the combination of all three. Unexpectedly though, a big clang was heard outside the great hall, followed by a small yell.

"Whee!" Peeves shouted, zooming in, throwing water baloons at the students.

"Peeves stop that this instant!" MacGonagall screamed, pointing her wand at the poltergeist. Peeves ignored her and continued throwing water baloons until he ran out. He then started zooming around, splattering food that was on the Ravenclaw table.

Excluding Dumbledore and Fudge, who were looking with bemused looks on their faces, the other Hogwarts Professors stood up and tried shooting spells at the Poltergeist, who was zooming around the hall. It was only when he saw that Professor Quirrel had run to the middle of the hall, cursing him, when Peeves made his move.

The poltergeist, with all his speed, swooped down low and pulled Quirrel's turban off his head, before zooming off out of the Great Hall, turban in hand.

The whole hall was silent. The student and teachers who were behind Quirrel could see it. Cho Chang screamed.

Quirrel turned around and Dumbledore saw it. He took out the Elder Wand. "Voldemort," he said. It was barely a whisper, but was heard all over the hall. Quirrel had his wand up. So did the teachers and the students who had not retreated to the side walls of the Great Hall in terror.

"Do not move!" Quirrel shouted. "Anybody who moves, I will kill!"

"Hello, Albus," a voice hissed, cold and sinister. "It is lovely to see you again."

"You are alive," Dumbledore said. It was not a question.

"Of course. Do you really think a baby could have killed me? I was merely, lost," Voldemort whispered.

"What are you doing here Voldemort?" came an unexpected voice. Quirrel turned around and the face of Tom Riddle was looking at the source of the unexpected voice.

"Ah, Harry Potter. How nice to see you again," Voldemort sneered. The boy, small for his age, was standing upright, an angry look upon his face.

"You killed my parents!" he shouted. Harry's scar was throbbing with pain.

"They were a meddlesome duo, just like your beloved headmaster over there," Voldemort said, as Quirrel's hand gestured at the head table. Fudge had decided to hide under the table.

"Now, the blasted Poltergeist has foiled my well crafted plan. Quirrel and I will make our leave, and none of you shall impede us," Voldemort warned.

"They'll stop you," Harry replied. "Hogwarts professorts are rather good at magic. You're just a face at the back of a head."

"Ah, young Harry, just like your father James. Foolish and rash. His weakness, however was his _love_ ," he spat the word, "for your mother and his friends. I have a feeling the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

Quirrel moved his wand, "Accio Longbottom!"

As Neville zoomed towards Quirrel, Harry's heart stopped. He did not expect this. This was not part of the plan. He had to move quick.

He ran as fast as he could towards Voldemort. As Quirrel was busy summoning Neville, there was a blast of spells coming from the teachers, which somehow seemed to all miss. Harry reached Voldemort, jumped and pushed his hand over Voldemort's face.

Both Voldemort and Quirrel screamed as they started burning from Harry's touch. Harry faked a look of comprehension and pushed harder and the professor and his succubus collapsed.

Neville Longbottom, who had fallen down a feet away from Voldemort, Quirrel and Harry, saw Quirrel's hand grasping for his wand, finally grabbing it. Neville then proved to everyone, especially himself, that he was a Gryffindor, even though he was not really thinking it at that moment. He jumped and landed on the hand, ensuring it could not move and could not cast anything to anyone.

The screaming reached a crescendo as the floating candles of the Great Hall dimmed for a second, before bursting into fire. The body of Quirrel and Voldemort seemd to spontaneously combust, and after a second, the only things at the centre of the Great Hall were a pile of dust, clothes that used to belong to one Quirrinus Quirrel, and a gasping Neville Longbottom and Harry Potter.

* * *

Number Four Privet Drive was very normal, thank you very much. So who on earth was knocking the damn door on a Saturday!

"We don't want any!" Vernon roared when he opened the door, only to be greeted by the sight of two men who did not look like salesmen or Mormons.

"Hello," said the man to Vernon's right. He had short greying hair and was wearing wearing a simple brown shirt with brown pants. "You must be Vernon."

"We're you're new neighbours," said the man to Vernon's left. He had a goatee, and was wearing a white jacket with a red shirt underneath, and leather pants. "Just bought number seven across the road".

"We just wanted to say hello. Maybe we'll come visit one day," the greying man said.

"Or do visit us. We'll set the drinks," said the man with the goatee.

The two turned to walk away, but stopped. The goateed man then said something that would haunt Vernon for a very long time.

"We'll tell Harry that you send him your regards. I'm seeing him in a couple of weeks. I'm his godfather."

Vernon purpled with fear. He had stopped breathing.

 _Godfather, godfather, godfather…_

"Well do come visit one day, Vernon. You and your whole family," Sirius continued, starting to walk away. "I haven't really talked to any Muggles since I got out of prison."

 _Godfather, godfather, prison, godfather, prison, godfather…_

* * *

A/N: I'm gonna change my summary of the story. This has deviated way too far from canon already.

Thanks for all your kind reviews. I seem to be getting the hang of this. Who knows? I might be able to reach double digits in terms of chapters before Valentine's day.


	9. Keep your friends close

**Merge Animo - Chapter 8 - Keep your friends close and you should tell them what stupid ideas you have**

 **You-Know-Who alive! Defeated by Harry Potter again!**

The Daily Prophet Emergency Post

By Rita Skeeter

 _Harry Potter, 11-year-old orphan who somehow defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named when he was just a toddler, has somehow defeated the Dark Lord again, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry._

 _In a day filled with drama, a prank by Hogwarts' resident poltergeist Peeves during dinner had an unexpected turn. Professor Quirrinus Quirrel, who until yesterday was the professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts, along with the other professors, was trying to curse the poltergeist away, when the poltergeist swooped in and pulled away the turban Quirrel was wearing. Unbeknownst to everyone, there was a face at the back of Quirrel's head, hidden by the turban. It was immediately identified as You-Know-Who by Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore._

 _"The Headmaster and You-Know-Who had some words, when Harry suddenly stands up," said fifth-year prefect Penelope Clearwater. "He then shouts at Voldemort. All of a sudden Quirrel summons Neville Longbottom. Harry then does something mad and runs at You-Know-Who. It got a bit confusing after that because there were people casting spells and jinxes, but when everything calmed down, Harry was on the ground with Neville Longbottom, a bunch of dust and Professor Quirrel's clothes."_

 _Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, who was a witness to the event as he was visiting Hogwarts to discuss the strengthening of cooperation between the school and the Ministry of Magic, refused to give a comment. It was rumored that he hid under the table when the skirmish between You-Know-Who and Potter happened._

 _Yours truly is at Hogwarts right now, trying to find out more of the story. We will have more information as this story progresses._

* * *

Harry breathed. He could smell it. He knew it well.

The Hospital Wing. He knew he was there without opening his eyes.

He was barely at Hogwarts a month. Bugger.

Voices were saying things.

"Really, Albus. Surely he's gone now. The boy has defeated him twice!"

"Seriously. I don't know why the twins keep complaining about school being boring. So far everythings bloody exciting."

"Do tell Mr. Potter that when he wakes up he has the thanks of the Longbottoms. Although Neville, I am very proud of what you did. Fighting You-Know-Who at such a young age. Your parents would be proud."

Harry breathed, and opened his eyes. The sun streamed in from the windows, high. He estimated that it was probably lunchtime. He couldn't tell clearly till he wore his glasses. He sat up and tried to feel around for them, only to have them given to him. He put them on, and his vision cleared, and the grinning face of Ron Weasley greeted him. Harry looked around. Hermione and Neville were sitting on the next bed reading books. He could see Professor MacGonagall at the other side of the hospital wing talking to Madam Pomfrey. Hermione and Neville looked up and smiled at Harry, relief etched on their faces.

"Morning mate," Ron said. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine," Harry said. "A bit tired. How long was I out?"

"Most of the night and half the morning," Hermione said. "It's half-past ten."

Harrys eyes widened, "What was wrong with me?."

"Nothing really," Neville replied. "Pomfrey said you had quite a fever when she checked on you, but nothing else was wrong inside and out. She gave you some Dreamless Sleep Potion because she thought you needed rest."

"What about Voldemort?" Harry asked, even though he knew the answer.

Ron flinched at the name. "Vanished after whatever you did to him. Quirrel became dust," Ron answered. "Stay away from Filch for a while. The House Elves will clean the whole hall except the spot where Quirrel fell. They say it's a spot with very sinister magic. Filch had to clean it last night, and probably has to for quite a while."

"I can't believe that Hogwarts has slaves!" Hermione said, outraged. "They're doing the cooking and cleaning and are not even paid for it!"

"Are you alright Neville?" Harry asked quickly. He did not want a discussion about S.P.E.W. to come up so early.

Neville nodded. "It was scary, but no harm no foul. Gran was here earlier. She said the Longbottoms owe you one. Two actually, after the broomstick incident."

"What are you talking about Neville? I'm the one who owes you! You stopped Quirrel from cursing me!" Harry said.

"Only after you stopped him from getting me!" Neville replied.

"I think," a voice suddenly said, "that the question of who saved who is something to be debated later." MacGonagall continued, walking closer to the bed, Madam Pomfrey beside her. Pomfrey immediately started waving her wand around Harry. After a few seconds she was done, nodded to MacGonagall and left.

"Why is it that every time something strange has happened this past month, Mr. Potter, that you're somehow in the middle of it?" she asked.

"I have no idea professor," Harry replied. He tried to give her his most innocent face. He really did.

So why did she look like she had just seen a ghost?

She shook her head and collected herself. Her eyes hardened.

"I am in two minds, Potter and Longbottom. I am very angry that you two would do something so foolish!" MacGonagall snapped.

Harry loved Minerva MacGonagall. She was a great teacher, great duelist and a professor with one of the biggest hearts he had ever met. He was also petrified of her, and this was one of those moments that solidified his feelings for him. Voldemort, he could handle. An angry, Minerva MacGonagall, he'd rather go fight a basilisk again.

"To actually run towards the Dark Lord, what were you thinking Potter?" she shouted. "And you, Longbottom," she turned to Neville. "Once you were free from the summoning charm you had to go and sit on his hand! What if something went wrong? You could have ended up a body without legs!"

Neville looked down at the floor, cheeks red with embarrassment. Hermione looked very uncomfortable to be in the middle of a chewing out. Ron stood at the corner of the room, trying not to laugh, the prat.

MacGonagall took a breath, "However," she started, "whatever you did Potter and Longbottom, it stopped You-Know-Who from doing some real damage. A search of Quirrel's quarters come up with some rather alarming results. They were going to lure a troll into the school grounds."

All four students looked up, horrified.

"I am very proud of both of you," she said. Her face was still stern but her voice had softened. "You two were willing to risk life and limb to help each other, and everyone around you. It is not just very Gryffindor of you. It was very Hogwarts of you. Your parents would be proud," she finished and walked off, leaving four stunned students behind her.

* * *

Harry, in the previous timeline, did not enjoy the limelight as much as some people thought. Although Ginny was naturally charismatic whenever she had to make a public appearance, be it because of Quidditch or some other god-awful event they both had to attend because he was the 'Saviour of the Wizarding World', Harry always felt awkward and forced a smile unless he was talking to a friend at these events. He guessed it was the price he paid for helping rid the world of evil. The gift that kept on cursing.

He was thus really peeved that when he entered the Great Hall for lunch, he was met with a standing ovation. A really loud standing ovation. Literal as well. Quite a lot of the students were standing on the tables. Half the Slytherins were applauding as well.

Harry just stood there, not knowing exactly what to do. Neville was beside him, in the same situation. Ron and Hermione were clapping along, the prats.

Dumbledore, bless his soul, stood up and put his hands up, signalling an end to the unwanted attention. Or so Harry thought, as he took his seat at the table.

"Misters Potter and Longbottom have shown the courage that exemplified everything their house stands for. With this in mind, I would like to award them 200 points each," Dumbledore said, to a round of rapturous applause again.

"They will also be presented with Special Awards for Services to the School", he added, "Which will be presented before the Gryffindor versus Slytherin Quidditch Match." Dumbledore was giving him a huge smile, clearly enjoying this. The prat.

That night, Ginny was laughing so much she was doubled over, the prat. "Oh I wish I was there to see your face!" she said, before breaking off into gales of laughter again. Harry just glared at the mirror.

"So we've got Riddle settled for this next year or so," she said, after taking an extraordinarily long time to calm down. Harry even got a chance to go to the bathroom, and when he came back she was still laughing. "What else do we have this year?"

"We need to start training, I'm meeting Sirius and Remus soon to sort out the Horcruxes, and we've got to get rid of Fudge, Umbridge or both," Harry answered. "What do you think?"

"Well, Hermione's plan did account for either or both of them," she answered. "Why don't we just do both?"

"See, I was thinking that. There is something I'm worried about though," he replied.

"Which is?" Ginny asked.

"Well we wanted to make sure we would do this with as little collateral damage as possible, yeah?" Harry asked. Ginny nodded. "However it's been a month. Malfoy got beaten up badly, Neville nearly falls on the Whomping Willow and then he somehow got dragged into the fight with Quirrel. What if it's the law of balances trying to balance out what we're doing? What if getting rid of both leads to getting two people who are worse? Or maybe something else happens that we haven't accounted for." It was a question that went through Harry's mind a lot the past month.

Ginny didn't have an answer to that.

* * *

Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville were called up to Dumbledore's office the next day, much to Ron's horror.

"Did you fight anymore Necromancers last night without telling us?" he asked half-jokingly as the waited for the staircase to stop moving. Harry just gave him a rude sign, and was rewarded with a slap on the head by Hermione.

Harry of course knew what the meeting was about. It was part of the plan. He was still unbelievably nervous.

Dumbledore had summoned a few chairs to accommodate the foursome, but there were already chairs occupied by Minerva MacGonagall, Severus Snape and Kingsley Shacklebolt. Ron recognised Kingsley immediately.

"You're the Auror who caught Scabbers!" he said, eyes wide with awe.

"Indeed I am Mr. Weasley. You can call me Kingsley," he said, extending an arm, which Ron shook with much aplomb. "Send my regards to your parents the next time you write to them."

Ron reddened at the statement. Harry knew from his conversations with Ginny that no letters were sent home yet. Hermione seemed to take the hint and glared at Ron, but chose to refrain from saying anything.

 _She's not embarrassing him in front of the professors,_ Harry thought. _We must be a good influence on her. Or bad. We'll see._

"The events of the past month," Dumbledore started, "has gotten me quite worried. You three," he pointed to Harry, Ron and Hermione, "have stopped a beating of a fellow student. You, Harry, have saved Neville and both of you have stopped Voldemort."

"As proud as we all are that you seem to be taking care of each other and other students," he continued, "it should not be the responsibility of four first years to do so. It should be the responsibility of myself and the professors. It shows an adept failure at some level of me as headmaster, and I would like to apologise to all of you." Dumbledore said, grim.

"Professor Dumbledore," Hermione said, shock in her eyes. "It's not your fault. You didn't know that Professor Quirrel was You-Know-Who, and the Draco incident were the fault of the students, no one else."

"If this were normal circumstances, Hermione, I would agree. However, after last night, I am well aware it is not. I should have foreseen it, but I didn't. This are not normal circumstances," he said.

"Why is that professor?" Neville asked.

"Because of me," Harry replied, quietly. Ron, Hermione and Neville looked at Harry with wide eyes. "Professor. Voldemort," the others flinched, "said my parents were meddlesome. Did they fight him or something?"

"They did, and that is the reason I brought you here. I need you four to promise that what I will share with you will not leave this room. Professor MacGonagall is your Head of House which means she must know about what's happening, and Professor Snape has a connection to what I'm about to tell you. I will explain Kingsley's role later. But for now, I must share this with you. Hogwarts' Professor of Divination is Sybil Trelawney…"

* * *

The old man and woman stared down at the happenings of the world.

"They are changing quite a lot. Are you sure we should let them continue?" she asked.

"They are correcting an imbalance. It's happened before and it saved everything. Let them at it," he said.

"But we've calculated. Any wrong moves by him, and it all goes to hell. We've seen that happen before as well. Egypt, Ragnarok, Krakatoa. Bulge. I think he's doing it way too fast," she said nervously. "We can't even see past 2 years from now."

"You forget one thing my friend," he said, smiling.

"Which is?"

"They were alone. He has Ginny. If she didn't come back we'd have to do something ridiculous like give him powers of a thousand wizards or get Merlin and other legendaries to reside in his brain and train him. That usually never ends up well. We didn't need to do anything this time. He just needs to make sure the anomaly is defeated this year," he assured her.

"What if he doesn't?" she asked.

"Then we'll do a Phil Connors," he said, smiling. That was one of his favourite plays. Rarely used but enjoyable when necessary.

"I guess you're right. Let's focus on Trenzalore. I think he just found River's tombstone."

* * *

A/N: Deitical beings might or might not be a representation of deities, science things or a mix of both. Stay tuned to find out more.

Gellert99: Thanks for the kind words. I would disagree. Maybe he would have sent them to the Burrow. However, regardless of his earlier failings with Albus Severus, it's pretty obvious he's an attentive father.

TroyWeb: I've seen you commenting on other legendary fics so it's an honour you're following mine.

SeanHicks4: That's a pity but understood. Thanks for the nice review!

TheWateringWizard: You seem to be enjoying it. Thanks! And patience. As River Song liked to say, Spoilers. Also yes. Viridian is sick. Go to the Viridian Dreams FB group and send your message of support to him. It's a real pity. NOFP is the inspiration for this, although I didn't want it as dark as NOFP is. I wish we could see how it ends, but we might not, ever.

Gin110881: Don't worry about Lucius. I despise the man. I'm in a roll in terms of writing so they're coming hard and fast. I can't seem to be one of those authors who writes 10k chapters, so you lot will have to deal with shorter, more dense ones.

hellieboo2010: Thanks for the kind words!


	10. That Sounds Plan-tastic

**Merge Animo - Chapter 9 - That sounds Plan-tastic (I'm sorry for the pun names I can't help myself)**

 _Tick Tock Tick Tick_

A breath

 _Dap, Dap, Dap_

A breath

 _Swush, Swish, Swush, Swish_

An even deeper breath

Harry had once asked portrait-Dumbledore whether the whole mad wizard act was;

A) Acting to confuse his enemies to thinking he's not that much of a threat

B) Overcompensating for a lack of a youth especially with the whole Grindelwald and dead parents thing.

C) Whether he had really lost touch with society and really did not know what appropriate social conventions were anymore.

D) Whether he'd been dropped as a baby and was always like that.

Portrait-Dumbledore had said that it was probably a combination of the first three. Mandy Brocklehurst had once tried to write a book called Albus Dumbledore: Wartime Strategies and had admitted to Harry when she interviewed him that it was either going to be the longest book in the world filled with unexpected twists and turns, or just a page with the words 'He was just winging the whole thing. The rest of the book is empty. You can draw pictures in the following pages because it'll probably make more sense than whatever Dumbledore had in mind. That'll be 4 Galleons please'.

However, Harry was sure it was actually the damn bloody instruments and trinkets that Dumbledore had all around the room that had actually pushed the Supreme Mugwump to the brink of insanity.

Dumbledore had just recited the prophecy to Harry, Ron, Hermione and Neville. The three youngsters were in a state of shocked silence. Harry joined them in solidarity, and was trying to put on the most scared, humble face he could. But how could he with all those bloody things making so much noise! That bloody thing was whistling like a kettle but it's in the shape of a pyramid.

Ron, blessedly, broke the silence.

"Bloody hell mate!" He said, looking at Harry. "That's mental! You HAVE to fight You-Know-Who!"

"Oh, Harry!" Hermione said, threatening to burst into tears. Neville stayed silent, face ashen-white and fearful.

"Professor Dumbledore," Harry started. "Why are you telling us this?"

Dumbledore took a breath. "I would have waited. Maybe if you were in your fifth or sixth year, when you were used to the wizarding world and better able to defend yourself. However, the Quirrell incident has led me to do a lot of thinking.

Your life is in danger, Harry. As long as you're alive, Voldemort will hunt you down. The headmaster in me would love to keep you protected, but those are just the naive wishful thoughts of an old man. I know from your actions this past month that the last thing you would do is to keep yourself away from whatever is happening.

With that, I have decided that we need to prepare you, Harry. Whatever you wish to do with your life, we know that Voldemort is coming after you. If you accept, we will come up with a plan that will hopefully at the very least, make Voldemort think twice before coming after you."

"What about us Headmaster?" Ron asked, visibly trying to restrain himself from shaking.

"You three," Dumbledore said, "are always with Mr. Potter, and your antics this last month have made it known that you're good friends with him. The reason I'm sharing this with you is because you three have a choice to make. You may choose to train with Harry. I would not like to see him do it alone, and he'd probably benefit from training with friends. You may choose to refrain from joining him, and still be his friend. However this means that you would be at risk from anything that happens to him. Or you may choose to break ties with Harry to keep yourself saf-"

"NO!" Hermione shouted. She then realised what she had done and decided to promptly to blush in a way that would have made a Weasley proud. Speaking of Weasleys…

"Professor Dumbledore, my mom told me about her two brothers who died fighting the war against V-v-You-Know-," Ron said, ears bright red. Harry was very proud that he actually tried to say Voldemort's name. "Dad said mom wasn't eating properly for weeks, and she was pregnant with Percy at the time. Anyone who tells me that I shouldn't help fight him should get stuffed."

"MR. WEASLEY!" Professor McGonagall shouted.

"Sorry, Professor," Ron did not look sorry at all.

"Is this why they went after my mom and dad?" Neville asked suddenly in a quiet voice.

Harry had not expected Alice and Frank to turn up. He had to look away so that Neville could not see the sad look on his face. The rest of the adults, all who knew Alice and Frank, even Snape, looked uncomfortable. Ron and Hermione looked confused.

"Neville," Hermione started, "Who went after your mom and dad?"

He frowned. "A few days after Harry beat him the first time, You-Know-Who's followers came searching for my mom and dad. They found my parents and tortured them. They're in the hospital forever."

This was too much for Hermione, who burst into tears and went to hug Neville. Uncomfortable but appreciating the sentiment, he patted her on the shoulder twice before she pulled away and returned to sit down on her chair. McGonagall stood up and gave her a napkin while helping her calm herself. Dumbledore cleared his throat.

"No Neville. As you were born days apart from Harry, you were indeed thought to be under threat. However, the prophecy is a bit fickle, and Voldemort marked Harry. From what I understand when I was at their hearings, the Death Eaters tortured your parents for further information regarding Voldemort's disappearance."

Neville gulped and nodded his head.

"Before we discuss your decisions, I would like to explain why the Professors and Auror Shacklebolt are here," Dumbledore continued. "Professor McGonagall is of course your head of house. I felt it necessary to explain to her what was happening, and she has agreed to help as much as possible. She will also be able to interfere if there are unnecessary complications that come from Gryffindor. Professor Snape," he gestured to the greasy haired man, "next to being a very talented potions master, is trained in the arts of Occlumency and Legilimency, which are two skills that you all will find necessary in case anything untoward happens. He will train Harry, and the three of you if you do choose to help, master them. Auror Shacklebolt in the meantime, is on sabbatical from his duties as an Auror to temporarily take over as Professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts. Madam Bones who's the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement felt it necessary to have a trained hand in case anything else strange happens this year."

Harry remained impassive, but he was secretly delighted. It was not part of the plan as Hermione hadn't counted on who would take over from Quirrel, but Kingsley would definitely get Hogwarts students up to shape.

"Once you have mastered Occlumency and Legilimency, he has offered to help train you up on basic Defense techniques. Nothing too major of course, but hopefully the next time you need to defend yourselves, you would not have to use your hands, or other body parts." He said this last part with a twitch of his beard, looking at Neville, who blushed bright red. In Harry's opinion, 'The Long-Bottom that saved the School' was equally as bad as 'Saviour of the Wizarding World'

"Now," Dumbledore said, "I do not wish for you to make a decision right now. I would like you, Mr Longbottom, Mr Weasley and Miss Granger, to sleep on it, and give me an answer by this weekend. We will continue discussing whatever is necessary after that. Goodnight."

* * *

 _Water_

 _A skeletal hand_

 _Fire_

 _Severus, Please_

 _Ginny hung by her ankles_

 _I Killed Sirius Black_

 _The Ministry Has Fallen_

 _They Are Coming_

 _An explosion_

 _Fred's Lifeless Eyes_

 _Molly doesn't want you as a son, Harry_

 _It's your fault Hermione's dead, Harry_

 _They Are coming_

 _They Are coming_

Harry woke up with a start.

 _Great,_ Harry thought. _Hello nightmares my old friends._

It could have been due to his recent encounter with Voldemort, or the highly emotional meeting of the past few hours ago, or the fact that his mirror call with Ginny was very short as she was falling asleep, but it was the first horrible nightmare he had in years. The last time it happened was during the Delphi incident, which meant one thing. Voldemort's spirit had recovered from the 'Battle of The Great Hall' (A name that made Harry very tempted to find whoever created it and give them one of Ginny's famous Bat-Bogey Hex. The magical world really exaggerated the fact that the 'Battle' was literally a slap in the face).

Deciding that he probably needed some thinking time, Harry stood up and pulled on his Invisibility Cloak. The room was dark and quiet. Something was off but he couldn't place it. Stepping out of the room, he started to descend the spiral staircase and stopped. There were familiar voices coming from the common room, chatting. He realised that when he got up, he hadn't heard Ron's god-awful snoring. He tiptoed closer and the voices became clearer.

"It's really dangerous though," Ron said. "Whatever I said earlier, we still should think about it. I doubt I'll change my mind but I'm gonna take Dad's advice for once and actually think things through."

"I agree with that, but I couldn't sleep because this is just quite, big," Hermione's voice replied. "Four months ago I didn't even know magic existed. Now I have friends but I have to fight a scary wizard."

"You didn't have friends?" Ron asked, sounding surprised. "But you're the nicest girl I've ever met!"

Harry smirked. He couldn't wait to show this memory to Ginny. She'd probably kick Ron in the head, or worse, tell Molly. She'd also probably praise him for actually bring Mr. Smooth for once. And then continued kicking him in the head. Or tell Molly.

"No, I didn't really. People pretended to be my friends so they could copy my answers," her voice sounded like she was about to cry.

"I didn't think I would have any friends. Great Uncle Algie thought I wouldn't get a letter to Hogwarts and I would be a Squib like Mr. Filch," Neville said.

"Wait. Filch is a Squib?" Harry swore he could hear a bit of Fred and George in Ron's voice.

"Yup. His mom was friends with my gran. Let's get back to the topic at hand. We're talking about whether we wanted to help our friend, Harry?"

"That's it, really. He's our friend," Hermione said. "He's really kind, he insists that we work together for homework, he's brave enough to fly around to save Neville. He fought You-Know-Who again. I've made up my mind."

"Me too," Neville said.

"Me three," Ron said, although he sounded a bit shaken. "I hope Mom doesn't find out. She'd kill me faster than you can say 'face in the back of a head'".

Harry rolled his eyes. 'Face in the Back of a Head' had become a slang used in school to mention something that looked terrifying, but was really rather pathetic. He smiled though, and his sudden fears from his nightmare evaporated. He decided to sneak back up, sure that he would fall asleep.

He didn't need a troll to attack the school to be friends with them. He just needed them to know he cared for them.

* * *

The two wizards entered the room, their wands in hand. They saw their target twenty yards in front of them and walked slowly towards it. They had to be sure they were quiet. Too much noise and the target would be spooked and leave immediately.

When they were just a handful of yards away, they struck.

"Depulso!" The target flew back, hitting a wall.

"Petrificus Totalus!" The target could not move.

"Now Peeves. We'll take this off you if you promise not to run or scream. Blink twice if you agree. Good. Finite!"

"Excellent. Now. We need to know mate. Why did you _really_ fly in to the Great Hall that day?" George asked.

"And if you want this box of dungbombs, you better tell the truth," Fred threatened.

* * *

A/N: I've really diverted off the timeline. Eh screw it. It's fan-fiction not fan-canon.

This is one of my shortest chapters yet. I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

A reviewer has pointed out that I spelled bad-ass awesome teacher Professor McGonagall's name wrong. This will be repaired in the near future.

SummonerDagger88: Thanks for the kind words. I'm hoping to make it at least a 4 year epic that I'll finish by the end of 2018. I can then start on "The Trial of Dolores Umbridge" cause that bitch needs to pay.

Meekerprincess9778: Thank you. That's one of the nicest reviews yet. I decided to stick with the actually-very-rich world JK gave us, but make sure the events are mine. Seems to have worked so far. We'll see.

Gin110881: They are not. What they are? You'll find out if I get to finish this fic. And goddamn dude you better notify me when you're done with that. Unless it's in German in which case the only thing I can say is Ich bin Ein Berliner.


	11. Bankers Draft

**Merge Animo - Chapter 10 - Bankers Draft**

The manager put down the letter, eyes narrowed in confusion.

The sender was very well known to him. In the one hundred and thirteen years of the managers employment, the sender was not only a very well known entity to his own kind, but to the managers kind as well. However, next to official business, in which the sender himself or an appointed representative would come and meet the manager at the managers location, there had never been an event in which someone in the managers position was invited to where the manager was. Even during the Rebellions of his forefathers, the location the manager was in was not to be touched. It was unwritten agreement that the location, much like the managers own place of employment, was a location not to be approached under non-diplomatic circumstances.

However, the letter sent was written in the greetings and customs that were standard for the managers kind, but very much foreign to the senders kind. The fact that the sender took it upon himself to learn of these customs was convincing enough for the manager to meet him, even if the sender did not have a famous name.

The sender then approached his fireplace. Even though his people had their own forms of travel, he felt that the request from the sender to remain hidden from unwanted eyes was something the manager would respect.

After the usual turns and twist, the manager stepped out into a large office, bedecked with beautiful chairs. There were large bookcases, instruments that the manager could not fathom the use of, and a phoenix at the corner of the room. The sender greeted him.

"Ah, Mr. Bogrod. May your gold always flow. Welcome to Hogwarts," said Albus Dumbledore.

* * *

"I must say, Headmaster Dumbledore, that this is a surprise," Bogrod said, taking a sip of the coffee served to him by a house-elf. He was surprised by the flavour, very much similar to the one he regularly drank at home. Unlike most wizards, goblins had no problems consuming Muggle-made drinks and confectioneries, thus a cup of Nescafe at Hogwarts was quite a surprise. "I do not recall any goblin in recent history having been invited to visit Hogwarts, much less the headmasters office".

"And that, Mr. Bogrod, is something that I would like to change," Dumbledore replied. "There are recent happenings in our world that has made me come up with plan of action, and the first part of the plan is to build a stronger bridge between wizards and magical creatures".

Bogrod did not show any reaction on his face. "I do not understand, Headmaster. Why are you approaching me. Wouldn't such a request come from somewhere within your Ministry?" Bogrod asked.

"Well, Mr. Bogrod, I must admit that my faith in the ministry has been shaken quite a bit recently," Dumbledore said. "Minister Fudge has not even attempted to admit that Lord Voldemort is back. He has not denied it, but refuses to acknowledge any questions about the Dark Lord publicly, even though he saw it with his own two eyes. He surrounds himself with incompetence and propagandists like Dolores Umbridge."

Bogrod led out a breath of irritance. It was rare for a client to ruffle the feathers of the Hogwarts goblins. The Undersecretary was very irritating. Even Lucius Malfoy, well known for his secret contempt of half-breeds and other magical creatures, was always polite and civil to the goblins. Umbridge never bothered to hide her disgust.

Dumbledore saw Bogrod's disdain and chuckled. "I see that you're familiar with her. "

Bogrod just grunted.

"There are those here at Hogwarts, however, that feel that goblins and other magical beings have as much say to the fate of the wizarding world as humans do," Dumbledore continued. "We would like to extend our olive branch with two offers. The first is a weapon, and the second is something more powerful than that."

Bogrod stayed silent for a long while. "Very well, Headmaster. What is it that you have to offer? And what, exactly, would you like in return?"

"The first one," Dumbledore said, "Is that if the sword of Godric Gryffindor was ever discovered in the future, the goblins will be recognized publicly as co-owners of the sword, seeing as it was originally made by Ragnuk the first".

Bogrod was glad that he finished his cup of coffee. No doubt if he was still holding it, he would have dropped it in shock.

"Before you respond Mr. Bogrod, let me tell you about my second offering," Dumbledore said. "The thing more powerful than a weapon."

"Information," Bogrod surmised, still not over the shock of the offer of the sword.

"Yes, Mr. Bogrod. Even you have publicly expressed your disgust that the Ministry does not share anything with the goblins. It could rain fire and they wouldn't bother to send someone to inform any goblin."

"That is true," Bogrod replied.

"Well we at Hogwarts believe things need to be done differently. With that in mind, we would like to share with you the identity of the wizard who attempted to break in to Vault 713".

* * *

Harry gritted his teeth.

When they were planning this whole thing, Ginny and Hermione agreed that there would be unexpected consequences. He wasn't, however, expecting to be even more popular than he already was at this age.

Harry, decked in his Gryffindor Quidditch uniform, was absolutely lived. He was sure that Sirius had something to do with it. Possibly because Sirius chose the moment that the photographers chose to start taking pictures as the moment for him to reappear publicly for the first time since his pardon, Remus tagging along beside him, clearly enjoying the spectacle, the prat. Sirius then approached Harry and pretended to introduce himself for the first time. He ignored Harry's handshake and proceeded to hug him tightly, before releasing him and crying so much he could have given Molly a run for her money. The git then decided that it was the opportune moment to present Harry with a Nimbus 2000 (Harry did not receive one from Professor McGonaggal like he did in the previous timeline. No doubt Sirius had something to do with that as well). The photographers and reporters went crazy. Rita was in her element.

The ceremony to present Harry and Neville with their Special Award for Services to the School then started. Harry gritted his teeth and faked a smile when he received his award from Dumbledore. However his smile was sincere when Neville, red-faced and eyes down, received was sure to bring up the confidence of the usually timid boy. Harry knew inside that boy was a man that was able to lop the head off Nagini in front of Voldemort. He was also very happy that Augusta Longbottom, usually stern and standoffish, had a big smile and a small tear in her eye.

After the annoyance of the award ceremony was over, Harry headed back to the Quidditch locker rooms for pre-match briefings. Oliver Wood was at his usual mood of totally maniacal mixed with very nervous.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen! The Slytherins are jealous with all the attention Harry's been getting. They're gonna wanna target him as much as possible." Wood said.

"Don't worry Skipper," Fred said.

"Harry's safe with us. Well make sure their Beaters are just faces in the back of their head," George replied.

Harry groaned. He really hated that saying.

"Chasers. I want you to make sure their keeper working non-stop," Wood said.

"Yes sir!" Angelina replied with a feral smile. Katie and Alicia nodded.

"Harry, find the Snitch and make them regret ever hearing the word Quidditch!"

And that was exactly what happened.

It could be the fact that the game started later than in the previous timeline due to the award ceremony, or the fact that Harry didn't have to contend with Quirrel trying to jinx his broom, but Harry enjoyed his second first Quidditch game immensely. Within the first twenty minutes Gryffindor were leading by sixty points to ten. Wood's premonition that the Slytherin Beaters would be targeting Harry came through, as he had to dodge the Bludger nearly a dozen times. However having Fred or George backing him up, coupled with being on the fastest broom on the pitch, made dodging the Bludger more an annoyance rather than something he'd worry about.

Gryffindor had just scored when there was a shout from the stands. Harry was thirty feet up in the air and looked around and then looked down. Just above the grass at the opposite side of the field the Snitch was hovering around. Higgs was far down below and already racing towards the Snitch. Harry ducked down and accelerated towards the Snitch itself. He knew however, due to the angle, that it was unlikely that he would reach before Higgs, even with a faster broom. He then decided to do something that would no doubt have Ginny beating him on the head the next time they were alone together.

Harry accelerated straight rather than going down. He flew as fast as possible and when he was thirty feet above the Snitch, he jumped off his broomstick.

Harry knew then that of all the stupid things he had done in his life, both the current and previous ones, that this was probably in the top three. As he fell down, arm outstretched, he knew if the Snitch moved away quickly he would be a goner. He wondered whether dying now would mean that he would kill the Horcrux inside him. Would he come back or would he be taking the train onwards from Kings Cross? Should he wait for Ginny? Would she kick his arse for dying in such a stupid way? Or laugh that he had copied Amber's move?

Of course he was Harry Potter. The sweet release of death was not something he would be lucky enough to feel for quite a while.

* * *

 **Harry Potter: Quidditch Prodigy**

By Rita Skeeter

 _In a day filled with talks about Harry Potter's second win against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (assisted by Neville Longbottom), Harry Potter turned the attention away from his fight against dark wizard to his absolute brilliance in the Quidditch Pitch._

 _The Gryffindor Quidditch Team beat The Slytherin Quidditch Team two hundred twenty to ten, thanks to a daredevil move by Potter, as he jumped off his broom and caught the Snitch. He was meters away from falling to the ground when Headmaster Albus Dumbledore cast a levitation charm and broke Potter's fall..._

Harry put down the Prophet and groaned, while Ron, Hermione, Neville and the rest of the Quidditch team were laughing at him. He glared at his friends. He was sorely tempted to start the DA again. Just so he could curse them to hell and back.

* * *

Ginny slowly opened her door and walked out of the room. The house was quiet and her parents were fast asleep. Tip-toeing down carefully, she made her way to the living room and out of the house.

She had been looking forward to this night for quite a while. After the various charm and wards were cast back in September, Ginny had been bored at home, and had taken to jogging and exercising to stave off the temptation of climbing the walls out of sheer boredom. When her parents questioned her, she said that she had wanted to be as fit as possible so she could play Quidditch in her first year, just like what Harry Potter was doing. Her mom smiled at her.

 _Well that crush on Harry was pretty cute. Pathetic, but cute._ Ginny thought to herself as she made her way to the shed. She didn't need to cast Lumos to be able to see her way to the shed. The man was only a crescent moon but still gave her enough light to illuminate her way.

Not that she wanted it to be a full moon of course.

She entered the shed and was greeted by one of the two people she was expecting.

"You must be Ginny!" Remus said, extending his hand to her. She ignored it and proceeded to hug him. She then turned to Sirius and hugged him as well. When she pulled away, she saw two men who had no idea how to respond to an eleven-year old stranger hugging them.

"Oh your faces," she said, grinning. "I can't wait to show Harry that in the Pensieve."

Sirius snapped out of it and chuckled. "Apparently another Potter's found himself another cheeky redhead."

"Indeed he has," she replied. "How was the match? Tell me everything before we talk shop."

Sirius and Remus told her about the match earlier in the day, not sparing any details. Sirius was animated and excited about it. Apparently he had missed Quidditch a lot when he was in Azkaban. When he got to the part about Harry jumping off the broom, Ginny started laughing out loud. Sirius and Remus were glad that they had cast silencing charms on the shed.

After she had calmed down she explained, "I used to play for the Holyhead Harpies," she said, which made Sirius and Remus go wide eyed. "There was one match that Harry came to that our Seeker did the exact same thing. Amber Fargo wasn't as lucky of course. She caught the Snitch but she broke her shoulder as no one thought to stop her falling. We won of course. We got third that year."

"You're a Harpy?" Remus asked.

"Indeed I was. And then I got pregnant with James and decided to call it quits. I could have played after but the travelling around was killing me," she said, smiling at the memory of the time she told Harry she was pregnant. She noticed that Sirius and Remus had strange looks on their faces. "We named him James Sirius Potter," she said in a small voice. She did miss her children.

Sirius sensed the sadness. "Harry says he misses them too. We had a chat with him in the Room of Requirement after the game. We're going off to Grimmauld Place tomorrow by the way. Harry said I need to talk to Kreacher," he added, a grimace on his face.

"Be nice to Kreacher," she said, a steely look in her eyes. "He took care of our kids amazingly. They're semi-decent because of him."

"What? Kreacher?" Sirius asked disbelievingly.

"Yes. Did Harry explain about Kreacher's involvement with the Horcrux?" Ginny asked.

"No," Remus said. "He said you'll explain a bit more. We didn't really have a lot of time to talk privately. Gryffindor missing their Seeker after he won a game with an insane dive would've have raised a lot of questions."

Ginny nodded. She now understood why Harry asked them to meet her that night. She turned to Sirius. "Your brother died trying to destroy Voldemort."

* * *

 _'Open'_

He walked. His footsteps echoed against the empty chamber. He reached his destination. He looked up. The big face seemed less menacing now.

 _'Speak to me, Slytherin, Greatest of the Hogwarts Four.'_

 _'I have awoken. The Heir has returned.'_

* * *

A/N: I'm sorry for the rubbish Quidditch match writing. I'll repair it in the future once I get better at writing sports stuff. I'm ashamed of it as I have a friend who plays Quidditch and his team recently did well at the Asian Qudditch Championships. Go Damansara Dementors!

Gin110881: I have an idea. I think. Let's see shall we.

TheWateringWizard: Let us wait and see. Fred and George are my heroes because of what they did to Umbridge.


	12. Unspeakable Acts

**Merge Animo - Chapter 11 - Unspeakable Acts**

Vic Bennett had to admit. This was the strangest thing she had ever seen.

In her 17 years as an Unspeakable, she had seen a lot of strange things. She was even part of how some of those strange things got started, but that was part and parcel of the job. She was no stranger to the word strange.

Her days at Hogwarts was proof of that. Even though she was a Slytherin she rarely made herself be known by anybody at Hogwarts using the usual Slytherin notoriety. She spent her time reading and the only friends she had was those she made at Gobstones club. She was not a fan of Quidditch although she did enjoy watching a game that didn't involve her own house. In the end she ended her days at school as just another name in the list of former students.

However, Professor Flitwick, it seemed, did notice her. It was his recommendation that got her recruited straight out of Hogwarts. Even though the other Unspeakables were older than she was, a couple by nearly a century, they never looked down at her even though she was one of the youngest members of the Department of Mysteries when she joined.

Being an Unspeakable had it perks though. Sure, she couldn't share what she was working on with her parents or her older brother, but she was afforded a lot of freedom from scrutiny.

For example, the Unspeakables had a lot of respect for Muggle technology. No doubt some of her former Slytherin dorm mates would have given her grief about it, but she always admired that because Muggles couldn't use Patronuses, Floo or Familiars to communicate, they had come up with telegrams and telephones. They had recently started using computers to exchange information, and Hutchinson was working on a way to make one of them work in the Ministry building.

It helped that she was dating a Muggle who helped her understand the ways of the Muggle world. Sarah Drabble was an editor for Channel 4 and was very adept at Muggle technology. She was also a awed when Vic explained that she was a witch, and the relationship got even stronger due to the mutual curiosity of both their worlds.

Thus for a standard witch, Vic was considered strange. However this was much stranger.

Behind a green door at the end of one of the rarely used hallways of the department was a room. This room was rarely visited. It was full of odds and oddities that were probably once full of magic and were used for important events in the history of humanity. There were things from events such as Vesuvius, Krakatoa and the murder of Caesar and at one time or another these items were considered very dangerous. Over time though, the magic in them had dissipated and they were chucked into the room with the green door.

Once a year an Unspeakable would lose a bet and had to go into the room to make sure everything was in order, which was fancy talk for making sure the items were not covered in dust. Vic lost the annual Christmas Butterbeer tossing competition and after procrastinating for almost a year, she decided to get it done. She entered expecting the usual dimly lit room full of cobwebs, dust and boring old items.

She didn't expect to open the door to a room bathed in orange and purple light. It was quite a sight. She took her wand out and slowly approached the source of the light. It was a triangular stone, smaller than the size of a regular book, which seemed to be vibrating while emanating the light. A quick scan from her wand showed that there was no dark energy coming from it, so she approached it slowly. The small tag under the stone said "Rome. 347 BC".

On the stone these words were inscribed on them.

"Merge Animo

20081991

Hogsmaede

Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon

Privet Drive, Surrey"

"So let me get this straight", Saul Croaker started. "We have a stone tablet that's been dead for more than two thousand and three hundred years come to life three months ago that we only found out because you finally decided to give that room a clean. It has a couple of Latin words that mean 'soul merge', a date and location of three places."

"That's right", Vic said.

"And what do we know about soul mergers?" Saul asked.

"Not much. According to our books they occured during Roman times, but that's about it. It's pretty much dead magic. Nobody has studied it since." Vic replied.

"What about our Muggle scientific correspondent. Did you check if any of them know about science of the souls?" he asked.

Vic shook her head. "Professor O'Briain replied yesterday. There are scientists who study it, but in general they're considered Fringe scientists. They don't have the funding to study it comprehensively. I don't think we can look at the Muggles for answers."

Saul was silent for a long time.

"This worries me," he said finally. "Soul Mergers are technically not Horcruxes, because you don't actually split a soul. You merge it with another one. It still requires a death though."

"Shall I go and investigate?"

Saul nodded.

* * *

Vic pulled her hood up, both to shelter her from the Scottish cold and to mask herself from any on-lookers. Even though it was night time, she was always glad that no matter what Sarah said, she was considered very plain. It helped her blend in with the crowd. She was watching James Bond on the television the week before and wondered how such a beautiful man would be allowed to be a spy. He would have stood out like a sore thumb wherever he went.

Although she was there for work, she did always enjoy her visits to the town. The first time she kissed someone was on a Hogsmaede weekend in her third year. She had the best snowball fight she ever had a couple of years later just round the corner from the Three Broomsticks. Sarah also enjoyed her trips there the few times they decided to visit a magical town.

Snapping herself out of her daydreaming she felt the stone in her pocket. It had vibrated more the moment she had Apparated into Hogsmaede and she decided to walk around to see if any change of directions would have effected it. After about half an hour of wandering around, she changed direction and suddenly the vibrations of the stone got stronger. She decided to walk straight past some dark woods, her wand held tightly in her other hand.

After about ten minutes of walking she stopped and her mouth gaped open when she saw where she was heading to. After a few years as an Unspeakable she knew that about half the time, rumors of haunted places were just made up, either by Muggles who had been Obliviated wrongly or wizarding folk who were just bored and wanted more attention.

However the Shrieking Shack had such a reputation that she was not going in there alone if she could help it. She shook her head and Disapparated, deciding to leave the Shrieking Shack for another day and went to the second location that was mentioned on the stone.

Of course it didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. Ottery St. Catchpole was a small town with houses few and far inbetween. Her training, however, managed to get her to spot which houses were wizarding households and which were Muggle. It was mainly the shape of the houses. Wizards could certainly take some lessons from Muggles on how to build a house. Way less conspicuous. All she had to do was go near any of these houses and see if the stone reacted to it. She got a response when she approached a tall mismatched house. Making sure she kept out of sight, she observed the house, mainly to find out who lived there. She could easily go to the Ministry to view records of wizarding households but she didn't want anyone questioning why an Unspeakable was snooping around wizarding houses. After ten minutes she got her answer. A balding ginger man walked out of the house and made his way to a shed in his garden. She recognised him from a recent article about the capture of a hiding Death Eater. Something Weasley. Works at the Ministry for something with Muggles. She would check his records when she got back to the Ministry.

Satisfied that she at least got a confirmed location from the stone, she moved on the third location. What greeted her surprised her immensely.

Whereas Ottery St. Catchpole was a typical town where a few wizarding families could hide out in, Privet Drive was the exact opposite. The lawns were perfectly manicured, the cars were washed and clean and the few people milling about at that time of the night seemed to be the same kind of people who would give Vic and Sarah's relationship a sneer. Typical idiots who seemed to think it was ethically right to say unethical things about people who dated differently from them.

Shaking away her anger from the memory of the last time they met Sarah's idiotic uncle, she started walking around the street. She had just passed Number Two when the stone started vibrating strongly. She looked around, saw Number Four and squinted. Even though she could see the house clearly, it seemed normal and boring. She took a step towards it and suddenly had the urge to move away from it. That was the sign of one thing. A repelling charm was placed on it. It meant that there were one or more people residing in that house were given some sort of protection. Deciding not to take the risk, she walked away from it.

She was lost in her thoughts and was too late to realise that she had walked into something hard. She fell backwards and immediately got up and recovered herself, muttering an apology.

"Don't worry bout it," replied a man. She looked up.

Sirius Black was smiling at her.

* * *

Harry was very excited. This was something new and he was so looking forward to it.

He opened the door to the classroom and walked in. He chose a table, sat down and Ron, Hermione and Neville took seats the same row as him. The class filled up and when everyone had taken their seat Kingsley stood up from his desk.

"Good day everyone. My name is Kingsley Shacklebolt. On to today's class. Who here knows how duels work?" He asked.

Hermione, naturally, was the first one with her hands up. As she started reciting what she had read, Harry thought back to the past weekend.

* * *

"Be firm but never shout unless it's completely necessary"

"Make them understand first. Then they'll get it"

"You need them to fear you the moment they meet you"

"Ignore Snape. They don't have to like you but don't make them hate you either."

"Listening is important. Make sure they learn what it means to listen to you."

"After a while lesson plans go out the window because you know the syllabus like the back of your hand"

"It's Professor Snape to you, Weasley"

"Oh shut up Snape Neville could out-teach you with his hands tied behind his back"

"Quiet!" Dumbledore said finally. He was clearly enjoying himself.

They had just concluded their weekly meeting. Ginny had just reported from the mirror on how Sirius and Remus had successfully gotten the locket from Grimmauld Place and it was now inside a magical safe at Number Seven Privet Drive. After it had ended, Kingsley had very unwisely asked about teaching tips.

Harry had taught both Dumbledore's Army and a few batches of newly recruited Aurors in his previous life. Nearing the end of her Quidditch Career Ginny had taken to coaching a few of the newer Harpies and found that she had enjoyed it. Snape was Snape. Thus all three of them were overloading Kingsley with advice for a solid fifteen minutes and by the end he looked like he had regretted even asking the question in the first place. Dumbledore, the most experienced teacher of the lot, decided to let it play out for his own enjoyment.

After Harry, Ginny and Snape had quieted down, although Snape was glaring at them, Dumbledore gave Kingsley his piece of advice.

"Read what you have, be yourself and share it. The rest comes naturally."

* * *

Apparently Kingsley had taken Dumbledore's advice very well. The class was fun and informative. He was teaching them on curses and techniques to dodge them, and dodging became the main focus of the class. He charmed some water balloons to fly around and students would dodge them if the balloons flew their way. At the end the class, the students were wet and laughing, but also appreciated his closing words.

"Wizards always think that you win duels with the spells you use. In reality, nearly all duels are won because one party is better at evading spells that are thrown at them. Dodging is as important as how powerful your spells are. Please read up on famous duels. Dismissed."

While Harry did enjoy his class with Kingsley, there was one upcoming one he was not looking forward to.

That night would be the foursomes first Occlumency class with Snape.

"Can't we get another teacher?" Ron asked as they walked towards the dungeons.

"No", Harry, Hermione and Neville responded.

"Can't we pretend to be sick?" Ron asked.

"No", Harry, Hermione and Neville responded.

"I'll pretend to break my leg!" Ron said.

"No", Harry, Hermione and Neville responded.

"I'll really break my leg!" Ron said.

Hermione stopped, turned to him and gave him a glare. He gulped and continued walking, muttering to himself. They reached the door to the Potions classroom and opened the door.

* * *

"Really, Amelia," Fudge pleaded. "This is just not necessary. You-Know-Who is gone and we have Pettigrew at Azkaban."

"You don't get it, do you Cornelius?" Amelia said through gritted teeth. She was usually a calm woman, but this stubborn man could challenge the temper of a saint. "This should not have happened in the first place. Black should have been given a fair trail. We should have really put our resources into investigating if You-Know-Who was really gone. Now you're refusing to even publicly admit that some form of him had come back and attacked students at Hogwarts. We need change."

"But-" Fudge started.

"No buts, Cornelius. My role gives me free autonomy and I do not take orders from you, only advisement. I am here to uphold the law, not to follow whatever you tell me to. I might even get kicked out of office for this but I will spend the rest of my days being able to live with myself."

* * *

 **Corruption Investigation in the Ministry.**

By Rita Skeeter

In an unprecedented first for the Wizarding World, Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, has started a full blown internal investigation on claims of corruption, nepotism and failure to act responsibly in their duties aimed at several prominent members of the Ministry of Magic.

"The recent spate of incidents; the capture of Peter Pettigrew and the re-appearance of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named at Hogwarts has led me to this difficult decision," Bones said during a press conference at the Ministry foyer. "I cannot in good conscience have a ministry that is broken, especially if the Dark Lord somehow finds another way to come back. This internal review will bring out skeletons out of closets, some I'm sure quite literally, but it will leave our world stronger in the end."

Although internal reviews are normal in Muggle governments, the British Ministry of Magic has not had anything close to it happen in it's 284 year history.

More information as this story unfolds.

* * *

A/N: Look out for new chapters this week. It's Chinese New Year Holidays in the country I live so writing galore. Gong Xi Fa Cai to all those celebrating it.

TroyWeb: Thank you! Ron is a great source of one-liners. They'll still have their childhood insecurities (I am a teacher so I can spot it right away in children and teenagers) but I'm sure Harry will help them out.

TheWateringWizard: Ah the Basilisk. If only you knew what evil plans I have with it.

Gin110881: If you notice, Harry doesn't exactly like fame. I'm making it worse for him. I'm in theatre I love a bit of fame but I know actors who win awards who run away from fame and Harry's a bit like that I reckon.

Meekerprincess9778: This story by my reckoning will be about 60 chapters or so. So you'll probably get your wish sooner or later.


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